Free Change Fault
by Shima And Tempis
Summary: -Completed-Something happened in Nita and Kit's past, and now Nita is wasting her life away, Kit's in exile, and Dairine can only watch. NK later. R
1. Kit, Nita, and Dairine

A/N: I was extremely bored one day and sought out to write an amazing fic. Instead, I wrote this! Remember, I am a weird author and have the odd ability to write weird things! ^_^;; So here goes:

Disclaimer:

Shima: I DO NOT OWN THE YOUNG WIZARDS SERIES!

Free Change Fault

Reaching for the sky, the cloaked figure snatched a cluster of stars. Staring at the gift in his hand, he smiled, a grim smile full of no more happiness than delight, more with anguish. The stars floated back to their original positions. The cloaked figure floated gallantly about the ground, merely wandering aimlessly. A simple wish, and all this would be over. A simple wish, and he would be free again. The lifelessness that was carried wherever the figure stood, wherever he went, was spreading. He could stand in one place, and the darkness of it all would consume everything around him, creating a blackened world he never thought he'd have to deal with.

A simple wish, and Christopher Rodriguez would be free again.

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It may have sounded different in other places, but the legend was always a story about the same thing. She had heard them all many times, She had heard them from different creatures, and different races from different worlds altogether. She ignored most of them, She was known to toss away legends of great importance. What's more, She would carry on her life knowing that the legends were true. She would carry on life knowing that the evil was staring out of her when she looked in a mirror.

Juanita Callahan would carry on life knowing that she could've changed it.

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As the sun broke into the newly painted room, a girl awakened, against her will. She was in a Star Wars t-shirt, that was much too long for a girl of her age, let alone of her size. More than once had she been told that she would not be allowed to go out in public in such a shirt. What was wrong? It wasn't even hers, though everyone knew that, because the original owner would never wear it out like she did. She yawned deeply, not wanting to get out of the bed, out from under her Star Wars sheets which she had absentmindedly forgotten to put in the wash. But it was not something she cared about. For her world was coming to a crashing end. All because of one person. All because She thought it was her fault.

All because Dairine Callahan's sister thought that it was all her fault.

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His cloak was a deep black, deeper than any black ever known, even deeper than the black covers of _The Book Of Night With Moon_ and he had to face it every day. He was nicely built, fully muscular and a powerful spell caster of all known spells. His manual had long since left his hands, noting that he was no longer ready to hold such a powerful item, that the darkness he had to hold in his structure got rid of his duties all together. And as he glided over the rough ground, he sighed. 

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It was never meant to be like this he thought, a provoked thought, something that he usually didn't admit to himself. _None of this was meant to happen._

The more he thought about it, the more he disbelieved it all. The Powers That Be never did something that wasn't suppose to happen, and he knew for a fact that if they did something of this magnitude, that it was definitely meant to happen. He tried to cry, to mourn over the fact that it had changed him, but no tears would come, nor cries for help. He was a helpless wanderer, but confined to wander only in places of low importance to the Powers That Be, for they disapproved of him, even after all that he had been through.

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She was always crying however. It was the only thing that could calm her down before she had to look into the sympathetic eyes of her peers. What was their sympathy good for? They didn't even know what happened, and they were useless for trying to help her heal. Locked, no, _confined_ in a room where only her tears ran freely, She was alone. Contact with her lifeless body was impossible, or a formidable task for even her own loved ones. Her pillow was wet with tears, tears that wouldn't stop even when she thought of her most precious moments. And soon, her barriers wore away, and she started to break down into an impassive being, emotionless, living each day like the ghost of the girl who once was.

It was summer, no school to bother with in the life of a ghost, a spirit or any other type of being that's merely floating through their life. And that's exactly how she went through her life. She had no more to live for in most cases, for the only thing she was living for was to help life, and to make it last longer from the Lone One's awful entropy. His awful entropy that stole her mother, and his darkness that stole her best friend.

__

And I know I could've changed all that, if only I had seen what he was going through. The thought startled her, it was something she never usually thought was true, even though she blamed herself everyday for it.

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Watching her sister's ghostly figure giving up on wizardry is what hurt the most out of all the things that hurt in her head. What happened to her sister who sent her bed off to Pluto once because she wouldn't get up? The brave girl who admitted to their parents that what she and her partner had been doing was wizardry? The young wizard rolled off her bed and onto the floor with a loud groan. The sun was in her half-open eyes, as she stretched and got into a drabby outfit, of mostly hand-me-downs from her older sister.

Her father was drinking coffee in the kitchen when she came down, and her older sister was no where in sight. She sighed, Nita hadn't come out of her room since summer began. She shivered and got herself out some cereal and ate breakfast quickly. Her father didn't speak, for he was concerned about his eldest daughter as well. Every morning he usually asked his youngest if she knew anything about Nita's schedule that day. But it was a worthless attempt that her father stopped doing.

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It was odd for a cloaked figure, to be only fifteen and darkened, to look over thirty. He wasn't tall, he wasn't old looking in the face. But no one would look at him, for he was abandoned to be somewhere where no one, not even the one he wanted to see the most, could possibly find him. The Powers That Be took no pity on him, for the whole reason he was like this was because he had chosen something that they had told him, physically told him, in the form of a person who angered him greatly because of his treatment of his best friend, to not do.

He sat in a tree and watches the dark sun rise, the sun that now hurt his eyes and bore away at his skin. Why had this happened to him? He use to be able to watch the others, see how they were, but now the Powers hated him, exiled him from Life and protecting it. His heart ached, which was the only emotion he could feel.

Suddenly, he felt like water was rushing past him, around him, through him. But it was just the feeling of rushing water, not the texture or feeling of being wet. Suddenly, a large bubble, a pure water bubble, was floating, rather bobbing up and down in front of the boy. He stared, as light danced in the middle of the bubble. It was as if it were a flame, preparing to be larger, to be a fire. But it didn't get larger, not until he touched the edge of the bubble. A dark gas surrounded it and he let out a shrill cry. But the bubble didn't disappear, and an image grew inside where the flame once danced.

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She sat up in her bed, awakened by the gruesome light of the morning. It had not always seemed this bad to her, once, what seemed like ages ago, the light was something she would always love. Though she had liked darkness still, because she could look through her telescope, now she really like neither. She yawned, and got up from her bed for the first time since Summer had begun. She looked out her window, her eyes adjusting to the bright light of morning.

She heard commotion downstairs, not as loud as it was usually before.... before _it_ happened. When everything was.... somewhat normal. Then again, when she had said the Wizardly Oath that one Spring and ran into that one boy, her life was never normal. She sighed and stretched, getting into some clean clothing. Then again, she had spent so long in a night shirt- that didn't happen to be hers- that all her clothes were clean. She got dressed immediately and tramped downstairs.

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The youngest wizard in the household spit out her orange juice when she saw who came downstairs. "Nita?!" She exclaimed, as her father turned to look at what had made his youngest daughter upchuck her drink, which he had happened to make. His jaw nearly dropped to the floor if it could have.

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A/N: How bout I leave it there and make you wait until I write the next chapter? Hmm? Hmm?

Tempis: Shima, why in the WORLD didn't you use names for most of this? They'll get confused!

Shima adjusts fake glasses to look like a librarian. "Well Tempis, it is simple. The order merely goes Kit, Nita, Dairine. Simple as that! But that was the prologue, so the next chapters will be in normal POV I promise!"

Shima and Tempis: R&R!

Shima and Tempis blink at each other.

Shima and Tempis runaway.


	2. Tom and Carl

A/N: Woohoo! I'm back, again. I only got a few reviews, but I expected that seeing as not many people come to the Young Wizards section. But I really like Young Wizards, so I'm going to update to keep you guys happy.

I know the first chapter, the Prologue, was kinda sad and had the main characters mourning over their oh-so-pathetic lives. I wrote it that way to get you interested! My POV and type of writing is going to be a little easier to understand and to read in the following chapters. I hope you like it!

-Shima And Tempis (AKA: SAT)

Chapter Two: Revolution

Revolution means sudden change, and something suddenly changed in the mind of Nita Callahan when she walked down those stairs that morning. Her face wasn't emotionless, and it wasn't sad. Nita's face seemed... happy. Other times, her father and sister would've been jumping up for joy if Nita came out of her room. But they were too awe-struck to move a muscle.

"Nita?!" Dairine stuttered, unsure if this was even real. Nita made her way into the kitchen, throwing a towel at her sister so she could clean up the mess she made when upchucking her orange juice.

Their father almost had a heart attack when he saw his eldest daughter. She was in clean clothing, instead of a large shirt that he didn't remember Nita ever having, and her hair was brushed. Her teeth were even clean, and Nita had always had a problem with even getting to the bathroom.. Ever.

"That's my name, or have you all forgotten?" Nita asked, grabbing an apple and sitting on a counter stool, one of the three they had just gotten. She smirked as she ate quietly, still getting surprised looks from her family. Her father was the first to look away, making it seem like his daughter was normally there in the morning.

Dairine however wouldn't give up questioning. A curious smirk was plastered on the young wizard's face. "Why are you here? Or did you forget you had grounded yourself?" She took the apple from her sister's hand and made it float in the air so Nita couldn't take it.

"I didn't ground myself Dair," Nita stated, trying, and failing to get her apple back, "I thought maybe you all had missed me." She smirked and muttered some words of the wizardry Speech, the apple coming down with a 'plunk' on the counter. Nita grabbed it before her sister could take it again and put it in the air.

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Cloaked, and surprised, Kit stood in front of the large pure water bubble that bobbed up and down in front of him. The fire was small, as images started to bounce around in the bubble. Kit took a few steps back, scared of what the Powers That Be may have sent him. Did they really want him dead? But all thoughts of pain and fear were flushed out when all the bouncing images collided in the middle of the bubble. He recognized the scenery immediately, for her had been they're so many times.

"Nita's kitchen?!" Kit managed to spit out, his eyes larger than baseballs. It was as if a movie was playing in the large bubble, but the sound needed to be turned up. Kit could do nothing to hear voices, but he could see people clearly. And the image seemed to be happening write then....

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Dairine glared at Nita for a while, before giving up trying to pierce the brick walls that surrounded her sister's emotions. She took an apple as well, and chomped on it, glancing at Nita every few seconds. Nita finished her apple first of course, and got up from the counter immediately following. "I'm going out." She stated simply, leaving the house as quietly as she had entered the kitchen.

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The image flashed to the outside of Nita's house, and Kit watched intently, not sure why such a gift was given to him. His eyes melted when he saw his best friend, noting the mask of happiness she was wearing. He always knew when Nita was wearing a mask, and that was definitely one of her best yet. _What's wrong with her? I'd think she'd be over it by now. _Kit continued to watch, as Nita walked down the street, down toward a house with large bushes everywhere.

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Nita glared down the road as she stopped at an intersection. She was going wherever her feet would carry her, and they happened to carry her down a familiar, on a familiar route, even though Nita rarely had to take it. Wizardry was faster.

The house Nita ended up at was not one she really remembered. Though it had a familiar air to it, Nita couldn't bring about the memory. _Why the hell am I even here?!_ Nita questioned inside her head, not expecting an answer. But she was going where her legs took her, and they were taking her up to the front door.

She knocked on it, wondering who even lived here. A tall man who also had the same familiar air answered the door, his frown turning into a large grin. "Nita? Well, we haven't seen you in a while. Come in!" The man ushered Nita into a spacious living room, where two rather large dogs bounded up to her.

"Uh... Get down guys." Nita stated in the Speech, amazed she even remembered it. The man handed her a glass of lemonade and urged her to sit down. He also called someone from another room, and short man, slightly pudgy.

He had the same grin hat the tall scrawny man had had when he opened the door to see Nita. They both were looking at her questioningly, as Nita sipped the lemonade she was given.

"So Nita, what're you here for? Tom and I haven't seen you in quite some time, thought you might've given up wizardry." The pudgy man, _Carl.._ a memory seemed to pop into Nita's head, and a grin just like the Tom and Carl's came onto her face.

"It has been a while.. I just thought that maybe I could get... advice, my dad and Dairine aren't really helping." Nita took another sip of the lemonade, which was actually very good. Her other hand was tightly grasping her knee, which was covered by some green jeans Nita had gotten as a gift from her aunt in Ireland last year.

Carl glanced at Tom, Tom glanced at Carl. Their eyes both went back to Nita at the same time. _Is something wrong with her?_ Carl asked Tom in his head, they're partnership allowed such communication. Tom answered quickly, _I don't know._

"Well, what exactly do you need advice on? Last time I checked you weren't on an assignment." Tom questioned, leaning back in his black leather armchair. Carl was sitting on the parallel armchair, which sat beside the couch, which Nita was on. She sighed.

"You probably don't want to hear this," She began, seeming to be quite interested in the floor, "But its--"

"Kit." Carl and Tom finished for her, both looking at each other. They leaned back even further in the armchairs, giving concerned and sympathetic looks to Nita. She nodded slowly, not removing her gaze from the carpeted floor.

Nita gulped. "It's why I haven't been around lately I think." She began, once again. Knowing nods came from the two Senior wizards. "Because of what had happened, and why it happened." Nita was about to say she felt guilty, but the words just wouldn't flow from her mouth.

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Kit was on his knees now, watching Nita confess to his old Senior Wizards that she had been wasting her life (though not even Kit knew that was true). He was amazed Nita hadn't gotten over it till now, and guilty that he had caused it. But his eyes looked straight at the bubble, unblinking as she continued telling Tom and Carl about the whole story, or after the story, and how she felt guilty..

__

Wait, she_ felt guilty?! Why?_ Kit pondered this for a while. She hadn't caused anything, not really. Indirectly she caused the darkness to consume Kit, but only indirectly. The Lone One was really the one to blame for the whole trouble, for he indirectly _created_ trouble. But Nita didn't want to blame the Lone One, she didn't want any of that. Kit did, Kit didn't want her to feel guilty, never.

"I guess the whole thing took us all by surprise," Carl stated when Nita was finished, Kit still on his knees with his head in his hands. "but there really is no one to blame Nita, you did nothing wrong."

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(A/N: I could leave off right there, but I'm not going to.)

Dairine, who had followed Nita all the way to Carl and Tom's, was sitting out by the koi pond, listening to Nita confess to things she never did. Dairine continued to listen, her ears twitching at some of the things her older sister said. _C'mon Neets, you know you never did things like _that....

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A/N: Tired of me not telling you what happened? I'll tell in Chapter 3! Too bad huh? Well, that's what you get! I got more reviews as I wrote this, and I thank you all! Please continue to review.

Domo Arigato

Merci

Gracias

Thank you!

-Shima And Tempis (SAT)


	3. The Powers That Be and The Lone One

Free Change Fault Chapter 3

A/N: OMK! (Oh my kami-sama) Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews. I love everyone's and I hope they don't stop. At first I thought my fic was too bad to ever get the encouraging reviews! I wanna thank the following:

Katherine The Great

Horse Freak

peach

Sandra

Marlex

animegirl-mika

smile7499

DTN

little lisa

Kaze Child

Morgaine of Ithil

lazy (hehe)

Your support means a whole lot, and I'm glad you like my fan fic! Updating is going a little slow, cause I've uploaded more chapters. I know some of my ending duels with Tempis are starting to 'slow' but I'm trying hard to juggle a lot of things at once. Thanks for being patient and here's chapter 3 of Free Change Fault!

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Wizards, the extremely talented Diane Duane does.

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Review of Chapter 2: _C'mon Neets, you never did things like _that....

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Nita's smile was pure this time, for she finally figured out that being in a little ball and pushing away from people that cared for you was stupid. (A/N: Nice thing to learn.) She sunk into the couch in Tom and Carl's home, glad to be in familiar surroundings, not the same old plain walls of her bedroom where a picture of the moon and a fuzzy posted of Uranus still stuck to her wall.

"Nita, you never told anyone what really happened did you?" Dairine couldn't take it any longer, and Tom, who knew she was there, let her in as she asked her sister the obvious. The eldest wizard in the immediate Callahan family (A/N: Including mom, dad, brothers, sisters) sighed and nodded in agreement. She never liked to tell anyone her secrets. There were enough rumors about what happened to last a lifetime.

So, building up her courage, Nita took a deep breath, and told her story.

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Kit squinted at the detail Nita decided to put in as she told his old friends, and, without knowing it, him as well. Kit's cloak darkened, and soon anyone who looked straight at him would be consumed like Kit was, turned into a Lone Force that was so unlike the Lone Power it was scary. His ears were the only things that worked, all other senses were lost to him as he noted every gesture, and every move his partner made as she stood and told the story.

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She always had the power to just entrance people, Kit thought, though he didn't exactly know he was thinking it, _I always remember everything she says to me._

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So Nita spoke, and in her mind the whole battle was being told through images and voices that weren't her own, that weren't the real Nita Callahan. In all the rage and fury however, Nita's outlook was wonderful.

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****

And so it began, it was early as it usually was when Kit and Nita would decide today would be a day to visit S'reee, and everyone else that lived in the waters they kept safe.

Nita spoke now, and she could here her own voice clearly. She gulped and coughed once in a while in the middle of the speech-like story.

"**We were sidetracked before we even reached the water, because a white light, kinda like the light we saw pulsing in our Ordeal in the alternate universe. But this wasn't pulsing, it was just there. It turned dark when we reached it, and seemed to flash darkness and then a human stood there, he was wearing a snazzy suit and his hair was slicked back."**

"The Lone One..." Carl added, so Nita wouldn't keep the suspense. Tom agreed that that was what the description proclaimed. Dairine merely urged her sister to continue. Nita telepathically gave them all the admittance that it was indeed the creator of entropy who stood before the two wizards that day about a half a year or maybe a full year ago.

****

"His smirk was the thing we noticed first. It had been a while since we ran into him. I don't think we'd seen him since Darryl joined up with us." Nita took a deep breath, gulping along the way. **"He didn't seem to care that we were both shocked he was even there. And S'reee had been waiting the whole time for us, so she could only watch as we fell into more danger.**

His voice was like ice, cold and slick and hard. He told us things we'd never want to hear.

'You two have been the most annoying of your kind I've had to deal with, and believe me, I've dealt with a lot of you.' He glared at Kit the most, because he was staring off into space, but mumbling words in the Speech under his breath. All I knew was they were in the Speech, I couldn't hear exact words.

Kit had looked back at him, eyes angry. They were like fire as I recall. 'So what? That's our job just so you know.' Kit answered him in a voice even more cold, at least it was too me. And then I just blacked out, I was thrown I know, into water, and S'reee was who I woke up to when my eyes finally opened, and the Sun was high in the sky. But Kit and the Lone One... they were nowhere.

Nita was breathing fast, and Carl, Tom and Dairine knew her story wasn't over. Nita hadn't given them the most important part of the story, and they would wait until Nita was ready to tell him, to the ends of the Earth and back.

Nita took a deep breath and started in again. **"S'reee said that I was thrown right on top of her. She dragged me back to the beach, but stayed in the water herself. She said I slept for only a few hours. But she also told me what she saw when she came back up with me."**

'It was cold' she said, 'and it was Summer, so being cold was really weird in the air of midday.' She saw Kit still standing there, his eyes locked to where I was being dragged to the surface. But he didn't see the hand coming high and hitting him across the face either. And the hand was dark, really dark. S'reee was kind of hard to understand for a little, the squeaks and things I didn't get."

"But she kept at it, and finally her Speech was clear and I heard every word. Kit was unfazed by the hit and stared at the Lone One, his eyes glazing over and his stare getting pierced with a magical dagger and Kit fell over. S'reee had called out to him, but the Lone One silenced her, I mean with a spell. I had to take it off when I woke up, because S'reee couldn't say the words of the Speech to reverse it. She said Kit got back up with his arms, and the Lone One let him get up, his smile growing. And she had to listen to all of it."

Carl and Tom were looking at each other then, as Dairine's eyes grew wide. Nita shielded her own bluish gray eyes from them, not wanting to look at them while tears began to stream from her eyes.

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Kit took this all in, remembering every detail. He knew how the hit felt, and his hand razed to his cheek just to make sure that no indent, though he there wasn't one, had been left on his face. Kit merely felt darkness. His senses were lost in the darkness of his cloak, and the words floated into the air above him, his eyesight now being the only sense he could have to here Nita retell the tale.

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****

The Lone Power explained fiercely to Kit that he was not going to tolerate child wizards to get in his way, and to get rid of us was something he needed to do. So Kit was taken by the throat, and they both were gone, and S'reee was so taken aback that she didn't follow. And then the darkness came...

Carl and Tom both put their hands up in unison, as if to say 'we know' without interrupting. Dairine knew too, and decided not to say anymore than was needed.

****

Kit's mom and dad didn't file a missing persons report because they knew what happened, at least as much as S'reee and I knew. But there were reports everywhere because Kit didn't come to school, and people saying how sorry they were because my boyfriend was dead swarmed me. I ignored them mostly.

But then the rumors about the darkness, saying that it was a guy who was creating all of it, who took kids hostage and had an insane ransom, and other stupid stuff like that started. I ignored most, but sometimes they said that Kit was the one who did it, and I got quite a few out of school suspension slips because of them. But it was hard, to know what happened when you couldn't tell anyone. Even Aunt Annie and Picchu... Ronan visited us.

I didn't want comfort though, so it didn't help. And soon it was Summer all over again and I locked myself in my room, I didn't want to come out. But today, I just was tired of it and got up. And now I'm here, talking to you all.

Nita sighed and sat back onto the couch that Dairine was now on, and both sisters exchanged silent glances. Carl and Tom were up and about soon enough, getting out large manuals that only Senior Wizards and higher could edit. Their pens scribbled furiously, as if this was some new ad improved detail that couldn't be ignored. Nita stared at them, then got up, gesturing for Dairine to come along with her. The young wizard obliged and followed out into Tom and Carl's huge backyard.

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Kit's eyes widened, and soon a blast of air-like water hit him and the bubble was gone. Kit wanted to cry out, he wanted to say something to prove that he still existed in this hellhole of a universe. He wanted to give himself a point.

Kit uttered things in his Spanish accented voice, all the words flowing out like a chain in the wizardry Speech. But the words were odd now, they sounded like they when they were matched with Nita. Clear and perfect. He felt awful though, because he had shoved so much pain into Nita, had made the Lone One angry enough to take the one thing Nita had to make her life worth living. To make Life itself worth fighting for and extending.

Then his head rose. Nita and the others didn't know the rest of the story. They didn't know what that bastard had done to him. What the Lone One, Lone Power, the virus of every universe, had done. So Kit's eyes blazed, those dark eyes that usually only blazed when magic was being used, were blazing because magic wouldn't help the only person who thought that he wasn't crazy. Even his parents still had been a little undecided by the idea. And Dairine always thought Kit was nuts to be friends with her sister. So Nita was the only one he could talk to.

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Nita and Dairine sat on some fold up chairs, staring at the sky that was now growing brighter as the sun shown through the few clouds that surrounded it. Tom had redid their backyard a little, and even Nita's father had helped out, because after the two wizards' mother's death, he had to get back to work. He got his shop back to running well, and Dairine had been doing some deliveries, along with Darryl, who needed money now that he wasn't autistic. (which is something that still amazed his parents) Dairine and Darryl were now on the verge of becoming even more legendary partners that Kit or Nita, which is funny seeing as Dairine didn't meet Darryl until after his Ordeal.

Nita breathed in deeply. "Dair, you think anything will change?" Dairine stared at her older sister in amazement.

"Anything as in Life? Life won't change Neets, everything dies eventually. But if you're talking about Kit, I have no idea." Dairine stated simply, sinking farther into the fold up chair and her eyes mixed with the sky. So many ideas ran through the young wizard's head, for she had just heard this tale, and as she related it to all the legends and myths that people talked about...

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"Nita's boyfriend was killed in an attempt to kill her! He defended her, isn't that romantic?" A girl at Dairine's school flipped her long blonde hair, chatting with her followers, her posse.

"Kit is the one who has been murdering every child who has disappeared. And finally, he disappeared himself!" Nita had angrily punched this girl, giving her a black eye and getting suspended, again, from school. Nita had gotten considerably stronger over the time since she had gotten her wizard's manual.

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Kit growled, getting up from his knees and then growled again, like a caged animal. The always-dewy ground of this universe moistened his cloak. Yes, this was one of those tiny universes, where it was just the same thing everywhere. Walk a few miles, and you would see that exact same tree. Burn it, and all the rest would be burned. It was a world for criminals, and Kit had suddenly become too hostile to be contained.

The wizard, the boy, the person who was Kit Rodriguez was suddenly just an image. Kit's anger was too strong, and suddenly a power surge alerted the people he had wanted to yell at the most. The Powers That Be were awakened by the hostility of the one they had banished from one universe, only to have him destroy another in sheer anger.

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__

Something is happening... The words whispered and echoed throughout. Everything that wasn't living, or that was, could feel it, but in different ways. _We must stop the happening..._ was something the Silence was saying, to the wizards with no books. _Keep happening, and keep dying._ Only only the Powers heard this thought, for they knew that their attempts were futile in this place. The Powers The Be however, made a slight error in concealing this thought to just Themselves. For Themselves included the one who had created the monster, and It was now informed that what his plan had started was being finished by the one who had the only power to defy him, for his other half was gone... or so It thought.

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He is trying harder..... We will be terminated.... Every universe..... help...............

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Shima: Woohoo! Uh oh, what is Kit doing?! How could he destroy his confinement? Is that even possible for a wizard who was exiled?

Tempis: Only you can know, if you await the next chapter of Free Change Fault.

Shima: Nita is out of her cell, and Dairine, Tom and Carl know the truth!

Tempis: The Powers That Be as well as beings everywhere have been told that something is coming...

Shima AND Tempis: BUT WHAT COULD IT BE?!

R&R!


	4. Ronan, Darryl, and Annie

Free Change Fault

A/N: Hi! I'm back, really glad for the reviews. All 21 of 'em (if I get more while writing this don't hurt me). I love the encouragement and I'm really glad you all like my fic! I work really hard on it everyday and to be appreciated for that is really nice.

Summary: Something awful happened in Nita and Kit's past, and now Kit's in exile, Nita is wasting her life away and Dairine can only watch. Rated PG-13 of later violence. N/K later as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Young Wizards series. I currently own books 1-6 which are now on my desk bookshelf, so I can gawk at them or read them when I want, but that's it.

Chapter 4: Ronan, Peach and Annie

__

A Month Later....

Nita crammed new school supplies into her backpack as she sat in the middle of the living room floor. Her younger sister, Dairine, sat just as content beside her, doing the same. Nita sighed and looked at the younger wizard, in the last month Dairine had shown Nita around the town, renewing her memory of things she had blocked from her mind. They had seen people that recognized Nita immediately, but Nita had no idea who they were. Eventually they had settled back into their normal routine, minus wizardry, which Dairine hadn't pressed Nita to do.

But also in the past month, Dairine was getting calls from Spot that she refused to tell her sister about. Calls about something worse than the Lone One, and all were needed. But Nita was still getting use to being alive again, and Dairine didn't want Nita to get thrust into an assignment too quickly. So every night, secretly, Dairine had chatted with Spot about courses of action. Even Annie and Peach-- er, Ronan were worried about this new revelation.

Dairine stuffed her final binder into her backpack and put it against the wall. She took one last glance at her clueless sister then departed up to her room. Nita watched her go and they made a quick mental connection. The elder wizard felt her sister's depression and a worried look appeared on her face. She shook it off however, knowing that anything could upset Dairine, like Spot not listening to her or something like that.

Nita finished packing her bag and was called into the kitchen by her father. "Yeah dad?" She asked, sliding onto a counter stool and watching him cook spaghetti. It smelled wonderful, as did the Ragu™ sauce that was already prepared. Nita's silvery eyes gazed at her father questioningly as the man sighed.

"You're going back to school tomorrow, and I just want to make sure you're okay with this. I mean, it's been a while since you've talked to any of your old friends..." Nita's father trailed off as he stirred the spaghetti. Nita managed to point out that he was done stirring then stared into her father's eyes.

"You mean before Kit, don't you?" She asked, already certain of the answer. She took a wooden spoon and got a noodle to taste, commenting that they were delicious and done. (D&D!)

"Sweetie, you know Kit was like part of the family... But have you ever thought of, you know, _girl_ friends?" Her father grunted and put the noodles in a strainer in the sink. He sighed as he looked at the sad look in his eldest daughter's eyes. Steam poured into the room when the noodles left the pan, and the man was blinded for a few seconds.

"Yeah dad, I know." Nita sighed as well and got three bowl/plates (A/N: What the hell are they called?!) from the cupboard. His father just didn't get that she didn't like talking about Kit. She never did, but her father talked about him like he was coming over the next day. Nita's heart ached as she knew that would never happen, but she shook off the feeling.

There had been many _girl_ friends for Nita, but they were always one after another. She never had a constant group of friends, not even a _constant_ friend. When she was only a few years younger, she was a bookworm with glasses referred to as 'nerdy' and the brain capacity of a genius. But her grades had slipped a little when she met Kit, and wizardry had a lot to do with that. Nita noticed the way Dairine left out wizardry from the conversation, and Nita hated being treated like that. She wanted to get back to work. She wanted to use _magic_ again.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Kit got a visitor that evening.. or possibly that morning. You couldn't tell in this world, for it was always night in most ways. The creature was bright, and Kit looked away from it so as not to be blinded. Kit's cloak was torn and red from his rampage, but the cursed world managed to keep him locked in... at least for now.

(Why-are-you-angry?) It asked, the gallant light never fading.

"Why do you think I'm angry?" Kit answered in a harsh tone, his knees deep in the wet earth. A tanned yet pale hand combed through his hair. Kit stared at his hand.. it looked almost dead.

(I-do-not-know-everything.) The light stuttered, and Its Speech was awfully quick, but Kit took in every word as if It was saying it slowly. Kit looked up at It, his dark eyes studying it, then reverting the ground once they could stand the light no more.

"You should, you created everything," Kit retorted, shoving his cold hands into his cloak as a soft wind ruffled his hair. The light shook and stared at Kit questioningly. "Well, at least I think you did."

(Many-of-us-worked-on-the-Earth.) The light answered simply, It flew great circles around the darker figure, taking in the evil and the good. Suddenly Its voice was slow and easily heard. (I created you, that is all.)

Kit had had enough, he thrust himself at the light only to land on his stomach on the wet ground. He snarled angrily and got up. "How does you coming here help anything?" He questioned, leaning against that tree.. the one that was everywhere.

(None-of-it-truly-helps.) It stated simply, and if it had limbs then Its arms would be crossed.

"Then... leave." Kit retorted hoarsely, this place was getting to him.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"So, when do you think we could come for a visit?" Annie asked over the phone, luckily with a phone card so as not to press charges for long distance. "I mean, everybody out here misses you guys!" Her voice was light and happy/

"Well, Nita and Dairine are going to school tomorrow, first day back.. But we get a long weekend because they're redoing part of the school. I'm sure they'd love some company." Mr. Callahan stated into the phone, while Nita and Dairine were in the living room playing go fish. The young wizards' ears perked up when they heard the mention of company.

"But of course, you wouldn't mind baby-sitting a third would you Annie?" Mr. Callahan asked, already predicting the answer. Though the rest of the answer was quite unexpected.

"Technically, it would be a fourth." Annie replied smugly, after being poked on the shoulder by a rather annoyed Power That Be. Though, inside it was a Power, outside it was a boy with ratty clothes and a smug look on his face as he tried extremely hard to calm the Power down.

Nita's father seemed startled. "A _fourth_?" He asked, as he heard a snicker from his daughters who had come into the kitchen for a snack. It was handing being able to hear what was going on. Nita's ears were a little less use to it however. "Well, I guess that's okay. As long as you don't mind Darryl that is." He added, grinning as Dairine and Nita made disgusted faces.

Dinner was full of conversation, and for once Nita was the one to make the most comments. She was still hurting inside, but now for two reasons instead of one. One, Kit was gone, and possibly for good. Two, Dairine was going easy on her so she couldn't do wizardry. Life was being protected, but Nita wanted to pitch in and get back to work!

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

(Tell-me-something-first.) The light was full of energy, and Kit suddenly noticed this was a Sprite, but a Power at the same time. He was amazed, then gave a questioning look in response. (What-really-happened?)

"Happened? Oh.." Kit was hit with realization. "You mean, how," he gestured to the cursed world, "happened."

(Yes.)

"That's pretty simple, I'm sure S'reee has told you enough so that I don't have to start from the beginning." Kit sighed, and started retelling his part of the story, the part he wished Nita could hear.

****

The Lone one caught me completely off guard, and his hand was still around my throat when we got wherever we were going to. It was really dark, except for this one piercing light. Then I knew it, we were in a practice universe.

Kit sunk his knees into the damp earth, as the Sprite/Power listened, now sitting in the tree Kit was kneeling at the base of. Kit took a deep breath as the Power urged him to continue. The Power also knew that It was in danger of being harmed, for this human, or not-so human, was full of anger and hatred for the Powers at the moment. But It was well aware of all this, and trusted Kit with all Its being.

****

He threw me to the ground, or whatever is at the base of a practice universe. I couldn't see anything but black, and that light. I couldn't even see Him, but I could feel Him, that black soul was strong..

"You, you little pest," He had said, glowering down at me as if I were a bug waiting to be squashed, "have caused me too much. So now I'd like to bestow my repayment!" One of his creepy hands pointed toward me, and he muttered several words in the Speech that were too fast for me to hear. I was scared, and tried to run, only to find that my legs wouldn't move. Nothing would, and then there was nothing.

"What the hell?!" I had screamed, but nothing truly came out, and there was darkness, even darker than the practice universe. Also, the kernel was gone, and so was He. And, well, I was back on Rose Avenue, but something didn't _feel_ right about this place. Then I looked down at my clothing, and it was completely dark, as well as my hands. I touched a tree, and it was gone, just out of the blue! Or, technically, black.

The Sprite listened to every last detail that Kit stated, and the cloaked boy was surprised by the attention he was receiving from this Power. Of course his first thought when the Sprite came was that it was the Lone One in another form, but the Lone One could never pull off a light-element creature such as a Sprite.

****

Well, then I figured it out. Everywhere I stepped I spread darkness, and I was willing myself to do so, because I had to get back to the beach! Maybe Nita, or S'reee could figure out something to you know, help. But I didn't make it that far, and soon I was on the sidewalk, a little aura of black seeping onto the sidewalk.

"That's where We found you, young magician." The Sprite noted, putting up Its tiny hands to show It had heard enough. "We couldn't let you spread this," It pointed to Kit's darkened exterior, "It would've spread all over your home quadrant if we hadn't taken you here."

Kit nodded, though no matter how many times it was all explained, he would never really get it. But once it was laid out, he could understand some questions. But one nagged at him the whole time, and it annoyed him completely.

__

Where did the Lone One get that_ power?_

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Feel free to hate me now! Because THAT is where I'm going to end this chapter, and because of FictionPress.net or .com or whatever I won't be updating for a little while! Gomen nasai for any conflicts. I plan to update all of my stories that aren't completed! Great huh? That's my plan at least, I hope it works! Now, please....

REVIEW!


	5. Peach and Sprite

Free Change Fault

A/N: Okay okay, I know it's been a while and you all probably want to rip my throat out. HOWEVER, I've been extremely busy and really I should be working on schoolwork. But I don't want to get killed!

Disclaimer: Diane Duane wrote the books, I wrote this story. Got it? Get it? Doubt it.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

The first day of school for Nita was uneventful. People figured out that she didn't want sympathy from any of them, so eventually she was back to her normal bookworm self. Well, in most cases she was.

Dairine's first day of school was just as uneventful, and often she found herself sending messages to Darryl in her head. Dairine was a good student, and teachers were always amazed, but she wasn't in the mood to get new introductions again.

Nita passed by a group of girls who were chatting non-stop by their lockers, and cringed when she noticed Joanne was one of them. _How does she pass a grade?_ Nita thought to herself, snickering under her breath so as not to be heard.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and the owner of it turned her around so she was facing her. Nita looked into the eyes of one of Joanne's friends, Maya.

"Hey, Callahan, how come you're boyfriend isn't here?" Every one of Joanne's friends, including Joanne, turned to look at Maya and Nita. Maya was about two inches taller, and if Kit were still here, would be about an inch shorter than he would.

The wizard's eyes narrowed and Maya let go of Nita's shoulder immediately. Nita didn't answer the question, merely turned back around and walked away. Maya didn't follow, because Joanne grabbed her shoulder and gave her a glare. It wasn't fun to pick on the little bookworm when she was acting like this.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

For some reason, Kit was in a good mood today. He had absolutely no idea why, and it scared him, he hadn't been in a good mood in a while. He was leaning against the bare tree, the one that is the same as all the others, and looking up at the gray sky. Clouds moved at amazingly slow paces, all in one direction.

The Sprite Power came about ten minutes later, and Kit wasn't surprised as it displaced air and appeared with a _POP!_ right in front of him.

(You-want-to-know-of-your-friend?) It asked, as Kit continued to gaze at the sky. Kit shrugged after a moment of silence, then looked at the Sprite Power.

"Yes, of course I do." His reply was hoarse, almost as if Kit had been living in the desert all this time instead of a moist world of duplication.

(She-is-well.) The Sprite stated, and Kit looked up blankly. Of course she was all right. He was about to open his mouth until the Sprite continued. (The-Powers-do-not-want-her-to-work. She-is-angry.) The power shook, almost with fear. He knew of Nita, yes. He knew Nita almost as well as Kit, but definitely not more.

"One question." Kit looked at the piercing Sprite directly, not shielding his eyes. If the light had been only a little brighter, Kit would've been blinded.

(Yes?) Kit was getting use to the Sprite's fast Speech. He could pick out every word from the string of long syllables. But this was too easy, the Sprite was slowing down.

"Who are you?"

(Many call me Macchu Picchu. I really prefer Peach.) Kit's eyes widened as the Sprite did a twirl around him. Finally Kit noticed the different colors of the Sprite's voice.

"Why aren't you in your host?" Kit seemed exceedingly curious. Almost even eager, to find out about this new revelation. Peach seemed to be acting the same way, glad that he was assigned such a character as Kit instead of some other doomed creature who truly deserved loneliness. Peach knew for a fact that Kit didn't.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Nita arrived in English class early, and after the interaction with Maya, no one decided to bug her. Under all of her books and papers, Nita hid her wizard's manual, which fizzed slightly. Nita wanted so badly to know what the message was, though it was probably from Dairine. English class was dull, just a big introduction to the teacher. When they went around the classroom, giving names and telling something about themselves, Nita almost tuned out. She knew most people, only a few were new or from other schools.

When the line of people came to Nita (who was last, she sat in the far back), the wizard had to be shaken from her trance.

"Miss?" The teacher, a young woman with flowing black hair and crystal blue eyes, asked Nita once again. Nita immediately snapped out of it, but no one snickered or laughed at Nita's shortened attention span.

The wizard however, was in no way fazed. She did not pause. "I'm Nita Callahan, and I like to read." That however, was the old Nita Callahan. The one she pretended to be around everyone except Kit's family, her family and other wizards. The _real_ Nita Callahan would've said something like this if the teacher were a wizard.

"I'm Nita Callahan, and I like to beam over to other countries, or planets. I especially like the moon, though I do not go there anymore because my best friend disappeared." That's what Nita was thinking of saying, but the silent class would not stay silent to that truth.

The teacher nodded, slightly surprised at Nita's quick answer. She was sure the student hadn't been listening to the directions when they were given. Apparently however, she was.

"Now class, you will be put into groups of four, with one group of three, so I can set up tables for the next day of school." The teacher looked around the room, receiving many groans from the class. Well, from everyone except Nita. There was something about that girl that was different, and the teacher immediately thought to put her in the group of three, so she didn't have to communicate with too many people. Obviously, Nita must be a loner of some sort, in a gang. (A/N: Teacher's perspective!)

One of the kids (A/N: Complete coincidence) who was going to be in the group of three ran out of the room ready to puke, so Nita ended up in a pair, with a girl named Jesse. For most of class she didn't listen to anything the teacher had to say, for Nita was so bored out of her mind and she wanted to check her manual to see who the message was from. (A/N: *deep breath*) However, she had to be patient, it was only 5... 4... 3... 2... 1--

__

RIIIIING! The bell complained as it was repeatedly hit, and Nita was surprised that she could hear it. Often yells of headache and aspirin were heard in Nita's head. She zipped down the hallway, passed her locker and out the front doors, sliding down the stair banister. She went over by the far fences where she and Kit would usually meet, and took out her lunch and sat on the ground. Her book lay open on her lap, the two pages viewable were completely blank.

__

Receive Message?

"Yes."

Ink flooded the page and then seemed to drain through it, and flowing words of the Speech appeared on the page.

__

Hey, Callahan-

I know how to get your friend. We talk a lot, he misses you. Want help? Call me.

The message was unsigned, but immediately Nita felt a voice in her head. Well, rather two voices, one cold and uncaring to the world except Nita's head, the other demanding and impatient.

__

Nita--

Don't listen to him, Callahan. Please listen, Kit is--

Nita, we need to talk.

Stop interrupting!

The voices morphed into one, and all that remained was the demanding and impatient one.

__

Kit is worried that you won't help him return to a normal state. He needs help Callahan, your help.

The voice disappeared, and Nita fainted.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

(Nita-is-too-weak.) Peach stated to Kit, as the Power's Sprite form floated above the cloaked boy's head. Kit swatted at It and tried to ignore the thought of Nita ever being weak. It was way too hard to imagine.

"She can help me, I know that." Kit stated stubbornly, his arms crossed over his chest. He sat in the damp earth, his back and head leaning against the burnt tree.

(And if she can't?) Peach's Speech slowed to normal, but it seemed way too slow for Kit. He actually had to get use to hearing it before he could understand the slow syllables.

"She can. I have no doubt in her skills. She can regain her magic."

(She already has. You however, cannot have your magic back until this is gone.) Peach gestured to the black hole known as Kit and then zipped over his head a few times.

"What am I suppose to do anyway? If you came to help, you're doing a rotten job." Kit growled as Peach flew over his head.

(Ah, such a silly young wizard. Why did we ever give you the Art?)

"You're the Power with an attitude, aren't you?"

(Haven't I always been? The Lone One is truly the one with the "warped" as you call it attitude.)

Kit shuddered at the name. Peach caught it, and smirked. "Do continue with your ranting Peach, it's quite enjoyable." Kit snarled, getting up and stomping over the wet earth. To nowhere, because this place was nowhere, but maybe he could find this world's kernel...

(This world has no kernel, I promise you.) Peach was now right in front of Kit's face, and his little Sprite legs were going a million miles an hour just to keep It in the air. (And Nita is weak, but she can help. They will be gathering soon.)

"Who?" Kit seemed curious, and his cold exterior seemed to brighten a little.

(The two Callahan sisters, Darryl, my host and Annie.) In Peach's language, Kit knew that meant Nita, Dairine, Darryl, Ronan and Annie. (And myself, where my host goes, I go.)

"Can you send her a message from me?"

(No.)

"Why?"

(She cannot hear from you, nor I from now until our wizards have a plan. The Lone One got you framed for a crime you didn't mean to commit. I promise, nothing will happen to Nita.) Peach disappeared, right before Kit was about to take a swing at him.

__

This just isn't fair.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Nita's head snapped up right in the middle of her last class of the day, P.E. Luckily, she was on the sidelines waiting to be put into the game or volleyball and didn't mess the game up by getting hit in the head or something. (A/N: Hey, people seem to like that happening.) She heard something, or rather someone in her head, and it scared her. Nita had fainted only for a second, then had gotten up, surprising everyone as she walked back to class.

__

Dair? Nita asked in her head, interrupting Dairine talking to Darryl. The boy merely did a telepathic shrug and got out of his partner's head.

__

What is it? The impatient younger wizard sent back.

__

Did you just call me?

No way Neets, I wouldn't do that while talking to Darryl.

Shouldn't you be listening to the teacher?

I'm in Science. I don't have to. I know more about Life than the teacher does.

Dairine heard a mental laugh coming from her sister and she smiled.

__

Okay, see ya Dair.

Bye Neets.

Nita still seemed worried, who was that if it was Darryl or Dairine? It couldn't be any of the Ireland wizards, it was way too early. But the messages sounded a lot like Ronan and Peach...

Suddenly, someone else popped into her mind.

__

This just isn't fair.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

SAT: HAHA! I'm going to leave it there.

Tempis: Baka-zu Shima-san.

SAT: I AM NOT A STUPID HEAD!!

Tempis: *runs away laughing*

SAT: *chases* I AM SAM! SAM LIKE SUSHI!


	6. I Bestow Upon Thee, A Gift

Free Change Fault

A/N: Okay, I'm updating sooner because I don't want to get killed by a ton of angry reviewers again! I'm glad you liked the last chapter, sorry it was so short! I tried to update so that people wouldn't kill me so slowly... I didn't think about length! If you notice, this chapter isn't names of people! I ran out, hehe. So, I'm going to start making up actual names for chapters! (Readers: *gasp*) I know, how amazing.

Disclaimer: Look, I don't own these books, they're wonderful, and I think I am a great author, but not even CLOSE to Diane Duane!

I Bestow Upon Thee, A Gift

(A/N: The first paragraph is normal, the other one skips to the day before Saturday!)

Nita's head snapped up in attention, and she looked around for any signs of other wizards around her. She saw nothing, heard no more words. Her heart sank, she wished there was someone to talk to about the problems she's been having, trying to stop thinking of Kit. Of course that was impossible, of all the things Nita found out were possible, nothing proved this one anywhere near possible.

__

It sounded so much like Kit... Nita thought in her head, as she headed out of the school when the bell had rung. It was Friday, and Nita couldn't wait for the first weekend of the school year. Ronan, Darryl and Annie would be coming.

Ronan and Nita's friendship had been off and on for a while; Kit had for some reason been their bond. Now that that was gone, they didn't know what to do. Ronan and Peach often would accidentally send Nita a thought or two--

__

That was them! Nita immediately figured out, after almost running into a tall senior. She muttered a sorry and hoped that it was in English and not Speech. She continued her way till she reached Rose Avenue, and looked all around her. She was about to take the step towards Kit's house, before shaking her head and walking the other way.

__

I better clean my mess known as a room...

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

As Kit sat in the burnt tree, he began to think his predicament through. Why did he have to wait for wizards to have a plan? Couldn't the Powers do something about it?

And then it happened, his wish came true.

Peach looked excited, which was an emotion Kit had never seen on the Macaw nor the Sprite. This excitement made the cloaked boy feel uneasy, as the Sprite zipped around his head.

(We-have-a-gift!) Peach chirped excitedly, and Kit barely caught 'gift' before It spoke again. (You-will-like-this. Though-there-will-be-some-adjustments.)

"What is it?" Kit asked, now excited as well. He slipped out of the tree eagerly and stood in front of Peach.

(Stand completely still.) Peach recited slowly, his eyes (if they were eyes) turned a blank white and blue color, just that white and blue ball. Kit watched, but didn't move a muscle. Except for his heart and diaphragm, he did have to breathe. (A/N: Hehe, science class!) Peach was saying a flowing chain of Speech, without breaking the fluent chain. The Sprite was breathing, Kit noticed, but forced his mouth to not move.

Finally, Peach stated, in plain English. (I reserve the right to give him a Life of light, free of darkness. Free him.)

And then there was a bright light, and it enveloped Kit from head to toe. He thought he would go blind, but his eyes adjusted-something they had never done before-and he looked around himself. He could see nothing but yellow and white, swirling around him in an aura of light.

Then it was just gone.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

It was complete chaos when Nita got home, her father was cleaning like mad and her sister was making things float over her father's vacuum. Nita watched as Spot came toward her, being partially chased by the vacuum until Spot stepped out of the living room. Spot's screen flipped open and it flashed, type beginning to appear and be spoken allowed.

Your father wants you to clean up your room, Dairine has already done hers. Dairine got an update from the Powers that she wants to talk to you about later.

"Thanks Spot, I'll do that." She patted to computer and it walked away, she slung her backpack over a chair and continued up to her room where she was bound to be for a few hours. Nita had a lot of stuff in there, and she didn't really want Darryl, Annie or Ronan to see it like that.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

The light wasn't just gone though, it was everything. The darkness, the tree, the never-ending world. Peach was gone too, though there was remnants of the Powers' presence all around. And then it hit him.

All around was Rose Avenue, near his own home.

He looked at himself, only to see he was wearing a green collared silk-like T-shirt, with light green edges. He was also wearing his worn out jeans that, unlike most boys' pants, actually hit him. These were the clothes he was wearing before getting encompassed by darkness. He looked down to his feet, to see his familiar sneakers, and no darkness seeping onto the sidewalk. He jumped up and cheered, then ran as fast as he could toward his house. His parents were probably dying to see him.

And they were, they were so shocked and speechless (A/N: No pun intended.) when Kit screamed he was home when he came in the door. All three of his family members were at the door and hugging him senseless, he was turning purple. Carmela was talking in Japanese, rambling different things about missing him. His parents cried and held each other, then Kit. Finally Ponch bounded up to them, knocking Kit clear over, and narrowly missing the doorknob by his head. He got a slobbery kiss all over his face as Ponch continued to greet him. Carmela pulled him off of her brother and held his collar, and Kit hugged all four of them individually. They had a large feast of a dinner that night, all cooked by Carmela, including foods that Kit couldn't even pronounce.

He was home, and he was so glad.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Saturday was the best day Nita could ever have, and it wasn't just because of the visitors waiting at the door when she woke up. That was a major part of it though.

"Just a minute!" Nita called, she was the only one up at this ungodly hour, and she got on a dirty shirt and pair of jeans and took every four steps in one bound. She arrived at the door about 30 seconds later. Opening it, she was strangled by hugs, from Annie and Ronan of course. Darryl went straight through the door muttering that he was going to drag his partner out of bed if it killed him. Nita smiled and led the other two into the living room, and told them to hold one while Nita ran upstairs to wake her dad and makes sure Darryl didn't kill her sister or himself. Or make Dairine's bed fly to Pluto, that was her thing.

Her dad was actually up when she came in, and he told her that he'd "entertain" her guests while Nita and Darryl woke Nita's sister. This always took a while, but Nita and Darryl had gotten use to it before Nita went into her depression. Kit had helped sometimes, but most of the time he would just laugh. Nita shook the thought of Kit out of her mind and entered Dairine's room.

There sat Darryl on Dairine's bed, looking at the older wizard helplessly, then at the sleeping figure of Dairine, buried in covers. She smiled at Darryl, and he smiled back, and the both pulled Dairine and her covers off her bed, making the sleeping wizard land hard on the ground. This jogged Dairine out of sleep immediately.

"Not you two!" She screeched, then covered her mouth when she remember who else was there. She blushed and shoved Nita and Darryl out of her room while she changed out of her new Star Wars T-shirt.

That's when the telephone rang, and Nita went to get it out in her father's room.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Kit waited patiently as he heard the phone ring, his stomach full of eggs, bacon and pancakes. When someone answered, he was almost speechless (A/N: Once again, no pun intended) when he heard the familiar voice.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"Yeah?" Nita asked into the phone, she was never very good at answering the phone.

There was a long pause, then a scratchy voice answered. "Neets?"

Nita didn't recognize the voice, but the fact whoever it was knew her nickname narrowed down a lot of people. "Who is this?"

Someone cleared their throat and a more smooth and familiar voice answered this time. "It's Kit."

(A/N: I could leave it off right there, but the chapter is so short!! Don't worry by the way, this is NOT the final chapter! I have a lot more to go!)

Nita dropped the phone and it made a loud 'BANG' on the ground. Nita heard the phone curse about how it gets no respect, as well as a questioning voice. "Nita, you there? Neets?"

Nita picked it up again, this time angry. "Look, if this is some kind of practical joke, I'm not falling for it. It's bad enough that people bug me at school because my 'boyfriend' is missing, but I really can't deal with this at home--"

"Neets, listen to me. This is Kit, I promise. Believe me Nita, it's pretty amazing to me too. I'll meet you at the corner of Rose Av., please come." Whoever it was hung up the phone, and Nita did as well, unsure of how to go about this. She went down and whispered that she had to go out quickly, and pardoned herself from Ronan, Peach and Annie. Ronan/Peach seemed to understand, and Annie gave the Power/boy a questioning look. Nita nodded to Ronan then slipped out of the house, with the departing words of Dairine:

"LEAVE ME ALONE WHILE I'M CHANGING DARRYL!"

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Rose Avenue was deserted when Nita got there, and she was pretty sure whoever had called was setting her up for some practical joke. She got a transporter spell ready, only one syllable and she would be back home, and no one could jump out and laugh at her if a bush told her someone was there. She sat on the curb, thanking the lord that no cars came by, and waited.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

(A/N: Shall I end it there? I think not.)

Kit couldn't wait to see Nita, but after her outburst on the phone he was scared she wouldn't come out to Rose Avenue at all. However, when he was closer to the corner, he saw a figure sitting on the curb, its head in its knees. He immediately noticed long, slightly dark but mostly light hair and the old greenish T-shirt his partner had worn quite a lot in Ireland.

"Neets." Kit merely sighed, and Nita's head snapped up. There was silence for a moment as the partners' gazes met. Nita stared at Kit opened mouthed, and Kit stared at Nita with a playful smirk. Both were astonished to see the other, too astonished to do anything, including speak.

Nita was the first to move, as she jumped up and stood paused while standing in front of Kit, to see his reaction. He continued to smirk, so she hugged him so tightly Kit was sure she was cutting off circulation somewhere. She started to cry into his shoulder, and Kit hugged her and let her, patting her back and then crying as well, so happy to see her and hug her and know she is real and not something that if you walk a few yards you come up to the exact same person. Nita was now almost the exact size as Kit, the top of Nita's head was at Kit's forehead.

"I missed you so much." Kit was the first to speak, as his hands ran through her hair, wanting to hold her for longer, but Nita let go.

"Is it really you?"

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Okay, now I am going to end it! How did you like this chapter? More magic in the next one, Kit gets reunited with Ronan and Annie. (Not Peach, he already was.) As well as Dairine and Darryl. The wizards' council is meeting! So now, will the Powers' prophecy come true? Find out in the next chapter of Free Change Fault!

REVIEW! 


	7. Seven

Free Change Fault

A/N: Spring Break means updates!

So, I'm updating! I thank you for all the reviews, I was almost certain this fic wouldn't get more than 10. (How wrong was I?)

Now, what you've ALL been waiting for! Chapter 7! (Hehe, 7: Kit, Nita, Ronan, Annie, Dairine, Darryl and Peach! Haha.)

Seven

Kit and Nita immediately went back to her house, and Kit go the exact welcome he was waiting for.

Pure, astonished, silence.

Ronan's mouth was open as he gaped at Kit, though his inner Power was laughing. Annie's eyes were around tennis ball size at the moment, and Dairine dropped Spot onto the floor next to Darryl who was sitting down, who looked like he was about to faint.

Kit's face was plastered with a stupid grin. "Hey guys." He stated, and sat down on the living room chair. Nita was still looking at Kit, her partner, her best friend.

This was too weird.

Soon everyone was talking at once, coming up and giving Kit handshakes (Ronan and Darryl) or hugging him and cutting off circulation (Annie and Dairine) and some jumping onto his lap and barking rather oddly. (Spot. A/N: Not Nita you sickening humans.)

And then the council began. Both Nita and Kit told the rest of the wizards about the Lone One's plans, and the fact that he could turn someone into a dark creature, like he had done to Kit. It was amazing how Nita and Kit finished each others sentences, even though each truly only knew half of the story. Annie, Ronan, Darryl and Dairine listened intently, and when they finished, everyone was completely silent.

"What can we do, knowing that He possesses power like that?" Annie asked, mainly Kit and Peach.

"The Powers are worried, I can tell." This was Ronan speaking, after being told by Peach. It was hard to tell when one or the other was talking, but Ronan had a simple cunning edge to his voice, while Peach's was strong and demanding.

Kit sat uncomfortably in his chair. "It can't be good if even the Powers are worried." Kit's voice cracked by the end of his sentence. Nita gave him a sympathetic look before turning back to the others. But Kit continued nonetheless. "Is there anything we can do? Why is this always laid on us?"

Annie adjusted her position on the couch between Ronan and Dairine and cleaned her throat. "It's different, I suppose. But I don't think we're the only ones who have noticed the change. Johnny called me a day before I came, and Tualha came over with a few other felines. I haven't seen her in ages until now." Nita's eyes widened toward her aunt as Darryl leaned against the couch while sitting on the floor.

"If all this happened a while ago, why is the Lone One bringing it all back now?" Darryl asked, for he knew nothing of Johnny or Tualha, these were mysteries in his mind. "I mean, He has better things to do then pick on a few kids."

"Kid _wizards_, Darryl." Dairine commented, her brain working on overdrive. Spot was sitting idly on the coffee table, 'shut down' for the moment. (A/N: I like Spot, but if I'm going to keep 'Seven' up then I have to have him 'off' at the moment!) Dairine got up and leaned against the wall, arms across her chest as she looked around the room. "I say we find the Lone One. He has more answers than we do."

Nita jumped up out of the chair she was in and stared wide-eyed at her sister. "You want us to go _find_ big, mean and nasty and ask?" She looked taken aback as she looked at her little sister. What the hell was going _on_ in that large brain of hers?

"Fine, we won't. But the Powers aren't really helping either." Dairine sent Ronan a look and he put his hands up in his own defense.

"Look, He just isn't talking. I bet he knows more, but Powers don't help wizards on normal duties." Ronan gave Dairine a look right back before leaning back on the couch.

Annie spoke up next. "This isn't a normal duty, Ronan. If it was, only one or two of us would be on it. But we all are, so something must be going on."

The talk continued on like that for some time, no one was truly listening to one another, and Kit didn't speak at all. Nita was well aware of her partner's uncomfortableness, but she could do nothing about it at the moment. Everyone had just gotten here and already magic was taking place. Darryl spoke only a little more than Kit did, for he was just as confused, and Dairine and Annie spoke the most. Nita debated with Dairine and Ronan however, and this whole thing seemed to be moderated by the eldest wizard. Annie shook her head often and merely let everyone talk before putting facts together.

By the time they had come to a conclusion Kit and Darryl both said they had to go home, and Darryl zapped off while Kit walked home with Nita at his side. This was their conclusion: Dairine and Darryl would be set up as bait to talk to Him while everyone was out doing normal business. After their encounter (if it worked, and if they survived) the information (no matter how little) would be used for a new plan of action. Nita disagreed with this completely, but majority ruled, she was the only one who didn't agree.

~!~!~!~!~!~

"Neets, Dairine and Darryl are going to be just fine." Kit put his hand on Nita's shoulder as they neared Rose Avenue. Nita looked at him helplessly, her eyes full of worry and doubt. "You just have to hold on, we're all really good wizards, we can do this if we work together. This is normal, we've done this sort of thing plenty of times." Kit seemed a little too confident for Nita's liking.

"But how are we suppose to _trick_ Him? We aren't going to get anything out of Him at all, I just know it!" Nita put her hands up desperately, wishing that her partner would be on her side for once. She couldn't be angry at him for long, just the fact of him _being_ here was enough to make her head spin.

"Dairine was already thinking about it before we agreed. She knows exactly how, she sent Darryl the plan while you were arguing." Kit stated, and Nita looked at him with wide eyes. "Darryl told me before he left." Kit shrugged as they reached the corner. "Look, if you don't want to be pummeled by Ponch and my parents, I think maybe we should part here. I really missed you Neets, it's good to have a partner again."

Nita looked at him helplessly again, before planting a kiss on his cheek and running back down the road toward her house, leaving Kit standing there, stunned, unaware of the people watching not only from the door of his house, but from the shadows as well.

~!~!~!~!~!~

(A/N: I'm not going to leave it off there, because I have SO much spare time at the moment.)

Kit couldn't sleep that night, his eyes stared tiredly at the ceiling. First of all, he didn't know why everyone was so accepting to him being there after his manual had left him and after all that they had been through. Without him.

Another puzzler was the fact that the Lone One hadn't come after him when Peach let him come back. Kit held out his wrist and stared at the dark bracelet on his wrist. His darkness wasn't completely gone, but at least it was contained. He thanked the Powers that everyone had missed him, only to be guilty of the fact that he was being so egotistical.

Finally, Kit's hand went up to his cheek where Nita had kissed him. That was probably the most confusing part of it all, at least to him. What was going _on_ in that girl's mind? Didn't she _know_ what that did to a teenage boy? Obviously _not_. (A/N: *shudders and goes to wash hands* Urm... *pukes* I dislike this, and I'm writing it! YEESH!) Kit returned his hand to his side as he continued to stare at the dark ceiling. No, not dark. This was a bright ceiling compared to the bracelet around his wrist. Compared to the darkness he had been living in.

Compared to the darkness he was in right now inside.

~!~!~!~!~!~

The end! Just kidding.

Nita stood next to Dairine as their father cooked their dinner. Ronan and Annie were upstairs at the moment, unpacking for the weekend. Dairine was intrigued by the whole thing, only because it seemed like such an _ancient_ way of cooking compared to the things that wizards could do. Nita's mind was elsewhere, part of it upstairs, part of it a few blocks away, (Kit's house... Wherever _that_ is.) and another part felt like it was in another world, not that that seemed very far off anymore.

The sibling wizard next to Nita noticed all of this, but said nothing as Spot sat upright also watching the display of ancient technology known as an oven. The computer continued to babble on about how 'Dairine can argue with alien royalty, move and blow up planets, even preserve Life as we know it, but she can't manage to _cook_ anything decent.' Dairine resisted the urge to throw her computer manual on the ground when she heard this, and her dad seemed so use to it that he merely laughed.

~!~!~!~!~!~

Kit gave up any type of sleeping he may have been thinking about at the time and went over to his desk, where on a normal day his manual would be laying, but nothing was normal anymore.

__

Being normal is so over rated.

Kit's head snapped up when he heard that, though it wasn't that he _heard_ it, it was more that his mind _felt_ it.

__

Who is this? Kit resisted the urge to say 'Moshi Moshi' like his sister always did whenever she'd pick up the phone.

__

Who do you think El Niño?

That isn't funny, Neets.

Yes it is. I was almost certain this wouldn't work either.

I'm not completely powerless. Though I wish I had my manual...

Don't we all? Tom and Carl will want to see you tomorrow.

Ponch will want to see them too. They have more treats than my sister has anime DVDs.

Amazing, ne?

Don't even start.

G'night! Kit felt the blank area in his head where Nita had been, and his head fell onto his arms which lay limp on his desk, but his forehead hit something sharp, like an edge or corner. He looked up, rubbing his head with his eyes closed, and felt around for what wounded his scalp.

Kit's eyes opened wide when he felt it. "...The hell?!"

~!~!~!~!~!~

Shima: Good morning, good evening and G'night!

Tempis: You're reviewers are going to POUND you after I do.

Shima: *trembling* A-after _you_ do?

Tempis: *drags Shima along with him toward cage*

Shima: Call my lawyer! Wait, I don't even _have_ a lawyer! GAAH!

Review! I want at least 50 reviews for this chapter before I can continue! (C'mon, not that hard people! I already have 41!)


	8. Return To Magic

Free Change Fault

A/N: YEESH! Thank you Kathrina, who reviewed EVERY CHAPTER by saying 'cool' so I hit my 50 mark. ALL IN ONE DAY?!?! You guys make me work so hard.

Well, anyway, thank you for reviewing, I never knew you cared so much. *sniffles* But anyways, on with the LONG (yeah, right) awaited chapter.

Disclaimer: Oh come _on_. You've all probably read or wrote enough fan fiction to know what Disclaimer means. From now on I'll just write Disclaimer to prove I don't own anything. All right? Chow!

Chapter Eight: Return To Magic

Kit stared at the object now on his desk in complete and utter shock, and his hands reached out and grabbed it and hugged it to his chest as tightly as he could until his knuckles turned white.

It was his wizards manual. Plain and simple, the book was there, and now it was in his hands, ready to be used. It seemed lighter than usual, of course, that's just what happened depending on the information you needed. By the dim light, Kit opened up the manual to the very back and found his own listing.

Under status, it stated:

'_Status: Active partnership._'

Kit stared at that for a moment, then gave up on pondering anything that had to do with wizardry while he fell onto his bed. He watched his manual for a while, just happy that it was there, and that he had wizardry back. Then memories of why it hadn't been with him came flooding back. (A/N: For reviewers her were confused about what happened to Kit.)

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Darkness befell Kit as he looked over the place around him. Stars decorated the black sky and wet, dewy grass was lain all over the ground in a strange blue green color. There was something of a shed right near him where he sat on the damp ground, and next to that was a tree. The tree he would come to be sick of for the rest of his time here.

Kit looked around and then held up his hand to find his pocket in space, maybe his manual would tell him what this place was...

But he felt nothing.

"Huh?" Kit tried opening it again, but there was nothing there, his pocket was missing. A glittering light blinded him in the darkness of the universe and then he saw it, but it was clearer than it had ever been before, and Kit reached his hand in quickly and snatched his manual as it shut almost on his fingers.

The manual fell open on his lap after slipping out of his cold, wet hands. He stared at the page, it was the Wizard's Oath. He stared at it, not getting the normal power he always got from looking at it. He read it over quickly, then read it aloud, trying to find comfort in its power.

"'In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so–till Universe's end.'" (© Diane Duane, _So You Want To Be A Wizard_) (A/N: Extremely hard to write that whole thing one handed with the book in front of you. I promise.)

****

Kit was unaware of the fact that the Powers were watching him, even though they watched everyone, and then he looked up at the dark sky and made a wish that he could be free to work with his partner, and abide by this oath, but he knew somehow that would happen for a long time. Then his eyes drifted back down to his lap.

The book was gone.

~!~!~!~!~!~

Nita woke up to the smell of a familiar breakfast, then groaned at the smell of tea. Her trip to Ireland had made her never lose her annoyance to tea every morning, but she had to get use to it, at least for the weekend. She slipped on a green shirt and some jeans and made her way into her sister's room, only to find a note there.

__

At Darryl's, Spot is to. He wanted a bagel this morning-- Darryl, not Spot. _So one will be missing... Don't mind the scorch marks in the kitchen. Ronan tried cooking._

-_Dairine_

Nita smiled, and then made her way down the stairs with her manual in hand, after making a pit stop back in her bedroom to grab it. When she came down, Ronan, Annie and her father were all in the kitchen, and to Nita's amusement, her dad was making pancakes. She looked at the counter top oven and saw what Dairine said not to mind. It was big, black, and round. Pot shaped, to be exact.

"Want some pancakes, Nita?" Annie asked, smiling as Nita turned back from the breakfast scars. (A/N: Get it, battle scars, breakfast scars? Oh, never mind.)

"Sure, are they black are brown?" She asks innocently. receiving a hard smack from Ronan in the arm, as he turned around from the pan he was making new pancake batter in. This was obviously a weird looking kitchen only because of the people in it. Her father was the normal one, though he could make amazing gardens. Then there was Annie, a wizard who normally lives in Ireland... And Ronan, who also lives in Ireland and is a wizard, but is also hosting Power in his body. Doesn't that seem like fun?

Nita slid onto a stool and opened her manual, pondering last night while her father got out a plate and syrup for her. "Nita, hun, I've got work today, so you'll have to entertain your guests." Her father stated, before grabbing his brief case from the living room, getting his coat and hat and leaving. Nita ate her pancakes slowly, while doing extra reading (for you always had something to read with your manual) when she flipped a page to something odd.

'_Wizard Partnerships_'

The title was there, in the same old bookstore font that it always was. The title was centered in the middle of the page, with no other writing. She stared, before turning the page, while Ronan and Annie both departed to guest bedrooms to change. They had to go out today, Nita heard Ronan moan, though she knew that was the Power talking.

'_In all wizardry cases, a partnership continually makes magic stronger. Life has approved of wizardry partnerships for some time, even though often they can be dangerous. Such as two wizards who may be in more than a platonic relationship, if broken up, their magic depletes in the fight, and the Universe dies a little faster. Partnerships that stay platonic are normally the most successful for the longest amount of time, though romantically involved wizards often have more power for even the short amount of time they are together._

Partnerships have consequences as well, for the Lone Power often chooses to defeat the young partners, for having more power. Often He attacks those of whom have just finished their Ordeal, for they are at a certain strength He believes is more fun to deal with.

As a partnership lasts, the magic grows with the wizards who hones on the power. If a partnership is broken on platonic standards, then the wizards may have a small power depletion, but they will continue work alone with whatever little magic they hold. In other words, partnerships may be good for Life, but for the Universe, they can defeat what wizards have been fighting for since Life began.'

Nita stared down at the page, at her last bite of her third pancake, then snapped her manual shut and slipped it into her 'Pocket' of space.

~!~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl were sprawled out on Darryl's living room floor, Spot sitting between them, numbers and words scrolling on his screen.

"Hold on Spot, go back a few lines." Dairine asked politely, while Darryl ate the last bite of his bagel.

Spot did just that.

Darryl stared at the computer screen. "Depletion?"

Dairine's jaw dropped. "A _big_ depletion."

Spot, if he had a face, probably would've been bored. "Depletion in sectors surrounding major wizardry centers." Spot recited robotically, and Dairine gave a slight nod.

"This cannot be good."

~!~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Sorry if this chapter is short! But now, I'm going to answer reviews for Chapter 7!

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little lisa: I've never written too many cliff hangars, because I know how angry I get when I read them! I hope this explains what happened to Kit a little better, though the whole story is still coming out. I like gradual explanations, don't hate me for the short part! Optimistic and me don't exist. I think it might actually get worse now that Kit is here. And now I'm going to have to explain why the Powers gave him the gift thingy!

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DSRockStar: I updated! Go me! Thanks a ton for your review!

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Kathrina: Yes, I know it's cool. Thanks.

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katie janeway: Here's more! NW (my editor guy thingy) says he likes the name!

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Richi: I know, hectic. I'm trying to keep readers interested... I think I'm making them want to kill me. Thanks for the review!

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DTN: *sniffles* I miss vacation... Now I actually have schoolwork!

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SVZ: Yay! I updated again! Does it really sound a little like Diane's work? It would be pointless if I killed Kit off, but maybe later... *mischevious grin* Naah, I like Kit too much to get rid of him.

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rider of unicorns: Overrated? Spelling word? Ours was 'discard', what kind of lame spelling word is that? Who doesn't know how to spell discard, let alone what it means? Yeesh. You really showed/read it to some friends? *misty eyes* That makes me feel so special... *sobs happily* Thanks for the review!

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Angel: Thanks for your review! It means a lot. A LONG time? Coolness! I hate cliff hangars too, but here I am, writing one! How weird am I?

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Buri: Thanks for reviewing, thanks for reviewing, I think it's okay... but great? Wowzer! Here's more, more, more!

Well, thanks all, I need TWO more reviews for 60, so, I'll update when I get 65. (No, this time I'm not accepting one person reviewing several times. Even though it made me feel good.)

So, seven reviews, that's all! You can do it! *pumps fist into the air* Go reviewers!


	9. Strong Appearence

Free Change Fault

A/N: Okay, really sorry for the delay, I mean it! I've had concerts and so has my family and I swear I have had absolutely no time! This chapter is going to be kind of long, so that way I don't get yelled at too much.

Disclaimer: I write way too crappy to be Diane Duane, so I _obviously_ don't own the Young Wizards series.

LONG RECAP:

Kit, because of the Lone One's evil trick, was locked in a dark world, where he had remained for a long extent of time. The Powers That Be took pity upon him, and figured out a way for him to be normal again... Though who knows for how long. Nita, while Kit was gone, had turned into a cold, impassive being. She had locked herself in her room over the summer, and finally she decided to come out and tell Dairine, Tom and Carl what happened. Dairine has been working with her wizardry partner, Darryl, for some time, as things with the Powers and Lone One continue to get weirder. Suddenly, a power depletion is detected and the Universe is beginning to corrupt. But Dairine can't tell her sister. A gathering of our well known wizards happened in Nita's living room, and it was decided finally that Dairine and Darryl were going to be "bait" for Him. Nita, no matter how much she disagreed, could do nothing. And after who knows how long, Kit's wizard manual has come back to him. Yippee!

Chapter Nine: Strong Appearance

Kit sat outside in his yard throwing a stick once in a while at Ponch, who chased it gratefully and the bounded back to him. Beside him lay his manual, which lay open to the Oath, which Kit had read so many times he was sure that he memorized it. Bounding up again, Ponch lay the slobber-covered stick at his master's feet.

__

Thinking?

"Yeah, I am." Kit tossed the stick a little farther than he had before, and it almost fell into the street, before Ponch caught it midair.

__

About what? Ponch lay his head on Kit's knees, looking up at him with big eyes.

"A lot of things, Ponch." Kit stood up, and Ponch jumped up, excited.

__

Are we going out? Huh? To see Nita? Please please please please please!!!! Ponch was now bouncing around by the fence, where Kit was unlocking it.

"Sure, why don't we go see Nita? Or maybe you just like her doggy treats more than mine." Kit laughed as Ponch let out a small whimper, and the pair made their way down the street, Kit in his own little world and Ponch wishing he _literally_ was. (A/N: In A Wizard Alone and A Wizard's Dilemma, the world with all the squirrels!)

~!~!~!~!~

Nita was watching TV in the living room when she heard the doorbell. Annie hollered that she'd get it, and Nita made no move to even find out who was there. Beside her Ronan sat, leaning against the couch's arm while his head rested in his hand.

"Neets, Kit is here." Annie called, and Nita heard her aunt's footsteps take her upstairs. The smell of dog was what Nita could smell first, and then the large mixed breed pounced on her and washed her face with his tongue.

"Ponch, get down! No kissing up to get treats." Nita heard Kit demand, and let out a laugh when Ponch let out a whimper and got off her. "Good boy, hey Nita, hey Ronan." A small edge of jealousy hinted on Kit's voice as he said Ronan's name. Of course, it didn't last long, for the smirk of Peach was what replaced Ronan's grim features. Nita stood up and wiped her face on her shirt, while Ponch continued to jump up and down demanding a dog biscuit.

"Hi Kit. Nita, I have to go... out." The demand of Peach was what came out of the Irish boy's mouth, and both Kit and Nita nodded respectively as Peach and Ronan made their way... out.

"So, Neets, what's up?" Kit sat down on the couch, ignoring Ponch's rather loud (and rather rude) comments about how wizards liked to torture pets. Nita couldn't help but smile at the dog however, and whispered something about strategically placed dog biscuits in the kitchen, and it took less than a second before the dog was out of the room. Nita smirked in satisfaction and sat down next to Kit.

"Nothing much, it's been a while since anything has truly happened." Suddenly something sparked in Nita's eyes. "School is tomorrow..." The wizard moaned, and Kit let out a laugh. He, in turn, was replied with a glare that only his partner could muster, which only made him laugh harder.

"Come _on_ Neets, school is the _least_ of your problems right now." Kit dodged a pillow sent straight for his head. Nita stuck out her tongue at her wizardry partner and then looked up at the ceiling. _Not even ceiling tiles to count, what kind of boring house _is_ this?_

The kind your best friend is in.

Nita stuck out her tongue again. "Illegal brain tapping! Don't _do_ that Kit!" Nita demanded, to no avail, he was laughing again. About fifteen minutes later they were found-by a rather full dog-lying next to each other on their stomachs on the floor, watching TV Nothing good was on, so Kit was trying to convince the TV to play a movie.

"_Come on_," Kit stated in the Speech, he was rusty, "_This isn't the kind of thing you're suppose to do. Maybe some blood and guts--_" Kit was smacked in the head at this comment, "_Fine, fine, you know you want to play a good movie. Any will do, you know what ones she likes._" Kit whispered the last part, and heard a small grunt and whiz of agreement from the television set. Both wizards sat back on the couch, a mixed breed dog between them.

"I still don't want to go to school."

~!~!~!~!~

"Nita, make sure you send us a call if anything happens, okay?" Annie hugged her niece tightly as they stood in the doorway of the Callahan's home. "_Anything_, Nita, and not just wizardry." Annie winked and the younger wizard rolled her eyes. Dairine stepped up to her aunt next.

"We'll tell you everything, and Spot says we may be seeing each other sooner than we think." Nita didn't catch her little sister's wink toward her aunt and small whisper of "Anything and everything," which both other wizards were thankful for.

Ronan had already gone home, much to the disliking of Nita, and happiness of Kit, who also had returned home. The small _pop!_ of displaced air sounded and Annie was gone, at least for now. Dairine and Nita made their way back into the house, each falling in turn onto the sofa.

"I don't want to go to school tomorrow, Nita." Dairine complained, after her run-ins with not even going to school, Dairine really had nothing to complain about.

"Me neither, Dair. Me neither."

~!~!~!~!~

School was back, and it looked the same as always. As if construction could do anything to the torture inside. Heh, yeah right.

Much to their disappointment, Harry Callahan chose to drive his daughters to school that day. Nita wanted to try out the Beam-Me-Up-Scotty spell, after not using magic for so long, and Dairine merely wanted to stop on Mars before going to school. Neither could debate their father when he was determined to do something.

"Can we at least drive Kit? I mean, it isn't really that far." Nita begged, and Dairine wanted to say a smart mouth comment about her sister being obsessed, but Nita already had basically read her mind and sent her sister a glare.

Mr. Callahan gave up immediately at the pleading eyes of his eldest daughter. "I guess we could..."

__

Pop! And Kit was sitting in the back seat next to Dairine in the car. He smirked and greeted Mr. Callahan gratefully, who merely muttered something about never getting use to this magic thing. Nita smiled from the front seat and greeted her partner as well, as they made their way to school. Dairine was dropped off first, a disappointed computer barking softly from her backpack, saying that it wanted to walk instead of be carried.

Kit and Nita got out of the car simultaneously and both said a goodbye to Nita's father as he drove off. It took less than two seconds before people were staring at Kit like he was an alien. Technically, Kit could debate that, seeing as he'd seen quite a few aliens and had met some that looked like humans.

But that was beside the point.

Joanne didn't come up to either of them, much to Nita's disappointment. She wanted to hear Joanne's stuttering voice as she looked on at Kit, who had grown even taller than he was before. But, it was one of those times when revenge wasn't as sweet as it should be.

Kit was still going to advance classes, even though he had been gone.

~!~!~!~!~

"What, did the shadows teach you or something?" Nita demanded, as Kit handed her his new schedule. It was lunch, and both were sitting at a table alone. Kit had been taking tests all day to see how far ahead he was. Apparently, very far.

"Naah, I did extra reading before hand. Not like I predicted being thrown in a very dark black place where the only company I had was a tree that had been struck by a lightning bolt." Kit answered nonchalantly. Nita rolled her eyes and started eating her turkey sandwich, while Kit took out three egg rolls.

"Carmela?" Nita asked, gesturing to the new cuisine.

"Should I even answer?" Kit asked, and started eating as well. Kids glanced at Kit once in a while, but it wasn't like he was Elvis Presley back from the dead, he was just a kid who had been away... On a rather long vacation.

The day was calm however, much to the wizards' enjoyment. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Not that Nita could forget the fact Dairine was going to be bait for the Lone One. But, nonetheless, nothing could possibly bother her as she and Kit walked down the street to where they normally parted to go home.

"So, Dairine is going to start planning it out with Darryl on Friday?" Kit asked, as the two reached the corner.

Nita let out a long, unsteady sigh. "Yeah, much to my _appreciation_." Nita growled out the last word.

Kit put his hands up in his own defense. "It was your aunt, not me Neets. Look, I'll talk to you later. I'm sure Ponch wants to take a walk, maybe we'll meet you outside later. See ya." And Kit took off, at a rather fast pace. Nita left in the other direction, slightly slower, and both wizards reached their homes at the exact same time. Two rather shaken Senior Wizards greeted one, and a very impatient dog greeted the other.

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: So, how did you like this chapter? Bad? Good? Pointless?

Please, please tell me! Once again, sorry for the late update!

REVIEW PLEASE!


	10. Catch A Tiger By The Toe

Free Change Fault

A/N: Okay, okay, I keep putting this chapter off! I'm sorry, but the end of the school year is coming up and I have finals, essays and projects to put together! I have been so busy that I can barely get things updated. And since I truly have to update three fics, it's been hectic.

Also, my goal is to get at least two chapters up before June 26, which is when I can't get on for a month because I'll be away. I'm really sorry for inconvenience, but I plan on working so that I can get three chapters up for this fic and Ordinary, my CCS one. For any that have read Insane Fan Fic Authors, it is highly unlikely that a new chapter will come in time. So sorry for those who are waiting!

Now, I decided to answer reviews in the beginning so I could get that all behind me:

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SVZ: You know what's amazing? The only book I've even partially read more than once is So You Want To Be A Wizard. And then I read these two parts in A Wizard Abroad cause there funny. But that was a while ago. Don't ask why I can pick up on the whole thing so quick! I HAVE NO CLUE! And I know egg rolls are more Chinese, I got to the buffets all the time! I should've made it Ramen... mmm... Squirrels! MANY MANY SQUIRRELS!

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DSRockStar: You were the only reviewer to notice the Senior Wizards comment at the end! At least the only one to comment about it! There will be a flashback in this chapter to not leave you hanging, I promise!

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katie janeway: I don't remember how long the wait for the last chapter was! I hope I didn't take as long... *sweat drops* Don't mind me...

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seraph14: Bravisimo? Don't ask me, I'm not usually congratulated (I swear!) on anything. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Here's your update!

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Kalyra Shadowdancer: Thanks! I kept writing, even though I kind of put it off.

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Morgaine of Ithil: Where does your name come from? I like it! I seem to be getting a little better at cliffies, even though I hate them so much!!! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? I hope this update was soon enough.

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Katherine the Great: I know, I spent so little time on the last chapter! Bad SAT! *hits self* Anyway, I'm trying hard to get the chapters edgy, but IT IS NOT WORKING. Failing attempts.

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DTN: Go ask Spot about the internet. Maybe it'll know. Thanks for reviewing!

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Silverwitch: Updated! Updated! Updated! I updated! YAY! Here's what happens, read on!

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Sars: Is wicked awesome a good thing? I sure hope so. Don't mind me, I like to take things literally. This chapter is suppose to be the most intriguing of all the ones I have written so far, so I hope it's okay. And reviews I've gotten more than I expected. Thank you!

Anyway, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I may like Diane Duane, but I am so not her and could never be that good!

Chapter 10: Catch A Tiger By The Toe

__

Rejoice in thine enemy's fall, but don't rush to pick him up either.

It was Friday already, and the week seemed to have gone by faster than Nita had wanted it to. Everything was getting so uptight at her house that the wizard was sure her brain might explode. Which, there was of course, a spell for, that had suddenly appeared in her manual without a second thought. Nita suddenly had this odd feeling that her manual was trying to be sarcastic to her... But that was another thing to find out, later, because Friday was the day Dairine and Darryl set their plans into action.

Unfortunately Nita wasn't the only one who disagreed with the spell that Dairine and Darryl were using. Tom and Carl had come over the Monday of this week with flustered looks on their faces.

~!MONDAY!~~!LUNDI!~

They had gotten there before Nita had even gotten home, and she had met Dairine halfway up the driveway. Dairine had a slightly worried expression on her face, but wasn't questioned by her older sister. It was things like this that could often be considered more abnormal in the family. Dairine somehow knew when she was in trouble, and Nita knew when Dairine didn't want to talk about it. And before either wizard picked up on any of that, their father was aware of anything and everything. There was some kind of adult link that transferred information faster than any child can get home from school.

Oh yeah, the telephone.

"How could plan a bait for the Lone One without the supervision of Advisory Wizards?" Tom asked, rubbing his temples as he paced the length of the Callahan's living room. Dairine tried hard to muffle her laugh at the tear Tom was making on the floor. She managed to make it sound more like a cough, though Nita caught the humorous air behind it and had to cup her hand in front of her mouth.

"We did have a council and everything. It's what was decided!" Dairine protested, after stopping her "coughing" that seemed to last quite a long time. "Annie was there and everything, we weren't unsupervised!" Nita rolled her eyes and sunk a little deeper into the couch where she and her sister were being interrogated. Her father would not be home for another hour from work. So Tom was the only one there to make sure they didn't get into trouble. Again.

Tom shook his head and rubbed his temples. When he finally looked back at them, his eyebrows were together in concentration. "You're telling me _Annie_ agreed to let you do this?" Nita nodded slowly, making the Senior Wizard groan. "I guess Carl and I can't convince your sister otherwise?" Nita shook her head, wondering why he was talking about Dairine like she wasn't there. Dairine made a small face at Nita, before looking back at Tom.

"Look, it's the only choice we have! Besides, Kit agrees, so Nita does too, what's wrong with it?" Dairine demanded, standing up. Nita rolled her eyes at the comment involving her, before shaking her head at Tom's questioning look.

The senior wizards stared at the two younger wizards with a gaze of pure astonishment, and a side of respect. He nodded, before exiting the Callahan's house without another word. Harry Callahan opened the door for the other adult, then rolled his eyes and Nita and Dairine put on their most innocent faces.

End of day one.

~!TUESDAY!~~!MARDI!~

Nita met up with Kit at the gate immediately after school, and both walked silently over to the Callahan's home. It was time to transfer wizardry into the spell, which Darryl and Dairine would wind themselves, to there own liking, with their own names. When the two wizards arrived, Darryl and Dairine had already pushed the coffee table to the side of the room, while Mr. Callahan looked on with a longing face, almost wishing his youngest daughter was the young book-obsessed girl she had been.

On the floor already laid by their sides were their names in the Speech, Dairine's more complicated than Darryl's after all that had been happening. Nita and Kit looked down at them with faces almost equivalent to Harry Callahan's, before Nita sat down next to Dairine and Kit next to Darryl. Luckily there was a carpet, the cold floor could get in the way of the wizardry they were about to commence. Soon everything was ready, for the two younger wizards had already prepared the tools (or supplies) needed. Obviously their manuals had already helped them along the way. Then Nita noticed what seemed to be missing. She looked around for a minute, and Dairine looked at her strangely, then grinned. She nodded weakly and let out a small, soft whistle, and in came trotting Spot, who sat down on its hind legs and-if it had eyes-stared up at all four of them with keen interest.

The spelling began.

Everything glowed with a soft blue aura as the Speech was weaved in and out of mathematical equations and other symbols than only Kit's family had even started to comprehend. The words of the Speech were something Kit had missed the most with all the silence, though one thing lay above even wizardry, or rather sat, across from him. He didn't let a stray thought slip out, seeing as three other wizards were there to pick it up. Right now his partner was Darryl, as he fed power into the spell that the younger male wizard was combining with Dairine. It was a two-part spell, one to catch its prey, and one to make it stay. The wizardry net was the more complicated part, to make both sides of the equation even out properly with the combing parts, to make a net strong enough to keep, even for only a little while, the Lone One staying still.

Nita was tired before the spelling even began, and feeding her power into Dairine's side of the wizardry was getting tough. Dairine could feel her sister's weariness, but made no comment, she knew how stubborn her sister could be. The net was beginning to form, each special "magic" knot turned a light yellow when finished, making the net look magnificent. The spell was not going to be completed in one day, in fact, by the end of three hours only a quarter of the net was finished. Each spell was left down to one 'word' in the Speech, so it would take less time to start the spell.

End of day two.

~!WEDNESDAY!~~!MERCREDI!~

Nita was late to school that morning, her father let her sleep in after how exhausted she felt. Kit called at about 10:00 a.m. to check up on her, he had gotten out of math with the simple excuse that he was bored. Which wasn't lying at all, for wizards couldn't lie, because he really was bored. It was merely review, and the teacher agreed to let him go out for a few minutes while she helped the other students. It's what you got for being smart.

"What?" Was Nita's answer when the phone rang and she had to pick it up. It came out as a sort of grown sounding something like _eggbidiff_, which was a species Kit had read about once that often ate masking tape for fun. Where they had gotten masking tape was as much a mystery as how teenagers got up in the morning.

Kit let out a long sigh. "Neets, where are you?" He asked, rather weakly. He was only a little less tired then his partner, and at the moment a couple of seniors were walking snidely down the hallway. He didn't want to even _talk_ about the looks they were giving him, none good, rest assured.

"At home, Duh." Nita drawled out, wishing she could merely fall back to sleep. She heard her partner grunt on the other line. "I'm coming, I mean it. Just not _now_." And then she hung up, and Kit tried hard not to slam the pay phone back down on its hook. The seniors had left, thankfully, and Kit slipped silently back into Math class without being cornered. He had missed absolutely nothing, thankfully, and when he came back in not a head turned in his direction.

Yippee.

When Kit and Nit arrived at the Callahan's that afternoon, only Dairine was there to greet them. Apparently, Darryl was outside being lectured by Tom, for illegal brain tapping into the mind of a non-wizard while he/she was in the shower. Dairine rolled her eyes when she told them, saying that Darryl's excuse was what's the use of powers if you can't use them? He was growing up to be such a guy, it scared her.

The work ran smoothly, and they managed to finish another quarter of the net that day before the wizards fell asleep, exhausted.

End of day three.

~!THURSDAY!~~!JEUDI!~

It was the day before the spell would be put into action. Obviously, everyone was antsy. And that was beside the fact that it was over seventy-five degrees outside and the fans were arguing with Kit about how they shouldn't have to work in this heat. Obviously, even the inanimate objects were antsy. Nita could feel the trees and plants leaning closer to hear the chorus of voices stating the Speech under their breaths so as not to interrupt anyone else. And then came the actual bait to call the Lone One by. Dairine pulled a loose hair from her own head and thread it through the closing part of the net. Kit, smirking, pulled a hair from Darryl's own head, who yelped in surprise as Kit handed the hair to his partner's sister. It was also weaved into the intricate roping of the Speech in the net.

Now lain out was a rather large net, which looked like a glowing fishing net, though smaller. It was about the size of two house doors, and where the hairs had been placed beat a crimson flash. The rest was either blue or green, or both, for that matter. Each square of the net was about the size of Nita's hand, spread, which is one main difference from that of a fish net. Dairine spread it over her legs and felt for any loose "threads" of magic, and finding none, Nita opened her own Pocket of space and slipped it in. Dairine, though she could have one, decided against her own pocket of space.

Darryl and Kit sat on the couch only an hour later in the Callahan's home, while the two sisters sat in front of the TV They were finished with work until tomorrow, where approximately five words in the Speech had to be said to start the chain reaction of spells. Of course, it was more like a long code than five words.

Kit went home soon after, and Darryl after that, and then Nita and Dairine fought over the last chocolate chip cookie from watching movies on the TV, and the all was silent in the Callahan household.

Outside, sat a Power, not a recognizable one, not the Lone Power nor Peach, though it was in a Sprite form, watching. After the two male wizards departed, the Power, quick as a flash of lightning, disappeared into the night.

~!FRIDAY!~~!VENDREDI!~

Everything had been prepared and thought over. And then a final change was made.

"What do you mean we can't come?" Nita burst, looking at her sister with wild eyes. Kit stood at her side, jaw dropped.

Dairine seemed to grow impatient. "I mean, you can't come. If the Lone One finds Kit has gotten out of his cell, then our plan of finding out about his plans won't work! You know the Lone One is intrigued when the wizards are interested in his side of wizardry. It's the only thing we can do! Neets, just this once, let me do this on my _own_."

The _pop!_ of displaced air sounded right between the two female wizards, who backed off of each other immediately as Darryl appeared, a bag slung over his shoulder. "Did I interrupt something?" He asked, as Kit secretly gave him an amused smirk.

Nita crossed her arms over her chest, obviously frustrated. "I guess I did." Darryl continued. "But that doesn't exactly matter, seeing as _Tom_ was the one who said neither of you could come with us. We're calling him by the world gate in New York, so there's also money that we don't have to get us there. So stop badgering each other can we _go_ Dairine?" Darryl's voice grew more impatient as he said every word. It was bad enough that they couldn't have the support of their fellow wizards with them, but the fact that the said wizards didn't believe the fact that they couldn't go just made it all that more frustrating.

Kit grabbed Nita by the shoulder when she was about to advance on Darryl, and Dairine thanked him gratefully as she dragged Darryl into the backyard. The _Pop!_ to the station was even bigger this time. Nita sent a glare to Kit and he let go of her shoulder immediately, and the wizard stomped back into her house. Kit remained outside in her driveway, looking up at the sky. Ponch had been sitting on the porch, and now sat silently next to him.

Suddenly, like a whisper from the wind, Kit heard something. He wasn't sure at first, but then the words formed, only in English, that seemed almost like a different language after all the Speech work. And then he heard it, like a song or poem rhythmically, that unnerved him. Ponch nudged his leg in acknowledgement that he heard it too, and didn't like it. The voice was uncaring and cold, and sent shivers down both wizard and pet's spine.

"_He who has one thousand friends, has not a friend to spare. And he who has one enemy, will meet Him everywhere._"

The voice erased itself from both minds, leaving a small emptiness that wasn't there before.

Kit turned to his dog with startled eyes. "Th-that was a p-pow-power, wasn't it?"

Ponch's head was spinning, and the dog whimpered at the words. _I don't know._

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Yay! Chapter is over! By the way, both the quote at the beginning in italics and the quote at the end are not mine! I like the quote at the end though, I've been reciting it over and over in my head!

So anyway, how was this chapter? Don't mind the names of the days in French, I have a final tomorrow and needed some practice!

By the way, for those who forgot from reading this chapter, I will be gone for a month starting June 26th, and I'll try to write down a chapter in a notebook, maybe two chapters, so I can just type them up when I get back and post them! Thanks for reading and...

REVIEW!


	11. To Be Clear

Free Change Fault

A/N: FINALLY! I'm back with a new chapter. I hope you haven't all lost interest! I'm really sorry for the long wait; I was planning out my CCS fic when I remembered that I had this new chapter down on paper from vacation!

Review Replies:

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SVZ: We did go to your dad's buffet! It was good. And a few days ago we went to a Japanese Restaurant. I have a small obsession with shrimp tempura now.

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DTN: Well now, you really should read the series. Not much of this can make sense with out it...

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DSRockStar: Sorry about the 'soon' thing. Vacation plus me being lazy kind of ruins it.

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Sars3: The people I'm around rarely say wicked. (And most of the time it's to make fun of someone else) So I wasn't sure. Anyway, I wrote wrote wrote, but I was too lazy to type type type.

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katie janeway: Well, this chapter really doesn't do too much to tell about the other power. (KIDDING! You just have to read it to find out.) Now read!

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Kalyra Shadowdancer: Thank you!!!! Here's what happens next. *points to new chapter*

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Morgaine of Ithil: Wow... Niceness. Shima came from 'Shiro' and 'Lina'. (Shiro: NW and Lina: From Slayers) But Tempis really I had no idea what it was. Then I heard the word 'tempest' and liked it. Well, "and" came from.... Just kidding! Finals went well, I got a pretty good grade on my French one. (I messed up TWO questions! TWO! WAAH!) Thanks for the review.

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Silverwitch2: I don't mind repetition. I actually appreciate it. Weird, aren't I? Well, thanks!

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ReaderGirl14: ....SOWWY! I didn't mean to take so long... Hope you continue to read!

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ang3lcat: I've actually been back for almost a month. Sad, isn't it? Still writing, of course. And thanks for your review!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Young Wizards series, and I don't want to (for once), because if I did then it would stop right now because I could NEVER replace Diane Duane.

This chapter is dedicated to GIS. May you rest in pieces. (I WOULD NEVER DEDICATE ANYTHING TO REGIS! [really evil guy in suit]).

Chapter Eleven: To Be Clear

Cold. It was the first thought that entered Nita's mind when she awoke the next morning. It was an odd thought, seeing as it was 60º outside, and beads of sweat lay on her forehead. She shoved her comforter onto the floor, sitting up and stretching out her arms. Nita looked through the darkness at the opposite wall, trying to narrow down reasons for her chills.

She found one: Dairine.

Dairi left with Darryl last night. That was why she was so freaked. The plan, the bait. What she and her fellow wizards for the past 2 weeks had been working on. _Man, why did we have to stay here_? Nita asked herself silently, lying back down and gazing up at the ceiling.

__

Your guess is as good as mine, Neets. The voice that entered her head was tired and groggy.

__

Oops, didn't mean to wake you, El Niño. Nita replied evenly, glad that Kit wasn't here to give her a good punch in the arm.

__

You didn't wake me up, I was already conscious. Kit was not lying, wizards don't lie, even at 7:00 a.m. Nita felt Kit leave her head; the usual empty feeling was ever present. Though nothing was as bad as before...

Where had Dairine and Darryl warped off to? The worldgate down in the deli, of course. It had returned to its usual position a while ago; it happened to be an adequate spot for calling spells. It would be Darryl's first time there, and only Dairine's fourth. It was another reason Nita pressed wanting to go.

"The thing is," Tom had told her merely hours before, "quite a lot of things can actually happen when more than the amount of wizards needed come to one place for a calling spell. The most common result is an over-use of wizardry, which then--"

"Let me guess," Nita had interrupted, "a very large 'Boom'?" She sat back in the armchair in Tom and Carl's living room, clasping her mug of freshly brewed tea.

"That would be the main idea; yes."

Now Nita wasn't so sure.

She got up out of bed, quite reluctantly, and stalked into her closet. It was Saturday and October, but unusually warm. Nita slipped into fading jeans and a T-shirt before going barefoot downstairs and into the kitchen...

...Where Kit was already waiting, sitting on a stool at the counter with his wizard's manual open and in front of him. Nita passed him and waved absently while opening the refrigerator. She didn't even notice the grim expression on his face as Nita sat down with a bowl of grapes.

"What's up?" Nita took out her own manual, thumbing through random pages and chomping on grapes at the same time.

Kit didn't answer with words. Instead, he raised his left hand for her to see.

Nita's jaw dropped. Kit's hand was completely and utterly black, as in absorbent darkness. The female wizard could only look at it in short, timed glances. Kit had put it in a plastic bag as the darkness spread; though even with a spell it was barely contained.

"Wh-what happened?" Nita asked, amazed and horrified by the sight. Kit shrugged one shoulder and continued looking through his manual. The pages seemed to shudder every time he touched them with his clean hand.

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl sat silently in the subway car. It was mostly empty, save and old woman and a guy in a fancy brownish suit. (A/N: GISs Minion!!) Dairine, being older than Darryl and a few inches taller, had forced Darryl to pay for the tickets. Now Darryl held a secret grudge against her and wouldn't speak.

When they reached their destination, Grand Central, they were back on speaking terms. Getting two packs of chips and a large soda to split at the deli, they chose to sit at the table closest to the worldgate's hidden entrance.

"This _is_ going to work, right?" Darryl's voice seemed slightly unnerved.

"Duh." Dairine answered, not exactly sure herself. They each in turn went into the back, to the worldgate. Supplies weren't needed in this case; Dairine slipped Spot out of her newly acquired "pocket."

Darryl watched in almost awe at the familiar manual, then remembered his own talent. Suddenly there were two Darryl's looking at Dairine as she worked, both holding ends of the wizardry net. When the "spelling" began Darryl became one again and entwined his own part with Dairine's. He was still new with this spell, and he paused quite a few times. Dairine had her part on Spot's screen in front of her, making it slightly less difficult.

The normal intrigue of the world as it leaned into hear the wizardly Speech heightened Dairine's confidence. Darryl was too absorbed to even notice, as the net glowed an intense blue, the places with each of their hairs glowing the brightest.

Suddenly everything was too blinding to see; the partnered wizards closed their eyes tightly as the spell continued to take hold of the worldgate.

It was over in less than a second; but it took several minutes for their eyes to readjust. When they did finally, the strangest creature stood in front of them.

It looked mostly human; a pair of legs, arms and the normal chest and torso. But where there should've been hands, there were paws. And instead of normal human ears, black and fuzzy cat ears sat upon the being's human head. To top it all off, a furry, swishing cattail was--well, in the back.

"What the _hell_ is _that_?" Were the first coherent words out of Darryl's mouth.

Paws went to hips. "A strider, you pompous idiot, and I could ask you the same question. Now tell me what I'm here for." The 'strider' was male, it seemed, if they even had gender. The only thing the two wizards were thankful for at that moment was that the strider was wearing pants, as well as a leather jacket. "Hello? Do you two have trouble hearing?" The next thankful note, it was talking in the Speech.

"We didn't bring you here!" Dairine blurted angrily, making Darryl side step a few times to get away from her. "We called the Lone One!"

The catboy looked at them with skinny, diamond-like pupils. "Well, I'm certainly not the creator of entropy."

~!~!~!~!~

"So you and Ponch encountered a Power, and now this?" Nita gestured to the large, clear garbage bag that was now up to Kit's shoulder. His whole arm had been consumed by something much worse than just darkness. Tom and Carl, already keeping track of Dairine and Darryl's progress, were to be over at Nita's soon enough. Nita just hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

Kit nodded lamely, he hadn't spoken yet today. His eyes had darkened much over the last hour, making him uncomfortable for Nita to be around. But she didn't leave his side-that is, until Tom and Carl got there, to which she retreated to her bedroom. It was being in a hospital waiting room, only ten times worse. Nita knew what waiting was like, and this was way different.

It was over an hour later when Nita heard Tom's call to come downstairs. She did so reluctantly, only to find Tom the only one present in the kitchen.

"Where'd they go?" Nita asked immediately, not needing to specify who 'they' were. Tom urged her to sit down on a kitchen stool, and Nita saw the urgency in the senior wizard's eyes. She complied immediately, plopping down on the stool and waiting for Tom to speak first.

"Kit has been attacked." Was what Tom started off with, making Nita almost slip off of her stool. She stared at him with wide eyes, as if asking him whether he was lying or not. Tom didn't say anything for a moment that seemed like forever, and just as Nita opened her mouth to urge him one he continued. "By what, we don't know for sure. In truth it may possibly be the same thing that attacked him before, the reason he had to be contained. Carl took him to a meeting with a few other wizards, to decide whether we need to contain him again or not. I have a feeling that whatever let him return human was temporary, but its just a feeling. The spell Kit was using to contain it in the first place was a much minor version of the real spell that contained himself, which was the only reason it was working. So at the moment, you can do nothing about it and all we can do is wait for Dairine and Darryl's findings." That was how he ended his speech (A/N: No pun intended), and Nita merely gaped.

After a few minutes, Nita slammed her manual (after taking it out of her "pocket") down onto the counter and ruffled through it frantically, getting to the listings in less time than usual. She scanned down the line, ignoring Tom's obvious protests, and finally reached Kit's own.

__

Status: Contained

Nita held her breath and looked at the senior wizard in her kitchen with enraged, wild eyes. "They can't take Kit again! He didn't _do_ anything! And you lied, you said they were considering it, you didn't said they had already gotten him!" She was close to hysterics now, still flipping through pages, wishing her manual would suddenly giver the address Kit was contained in, let her find him. _Anything... Anything!_

Looking at her with sympathetic eyes, Tom got off his stool and let his hands rest gently on Nita's shoulders, ceasing her quest. "Nita, there's nothing we can do now. This is in the Power's hands. And, whether its fortunate or not, in Dairine and Darryl's."

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl shoved the Strider into the girl's bathroom, Dairine conjuring up a quick spell to not block out, but merely turn away anyone else. The spell gave the bystander merely a mental reason why she couldn't go into the bathroom. That way, Darryl wouldn't die of embarrassment and for the moment they could hide the Strider.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? I have to get back to my galaxy." The Strider was staring at them as if they were insane. "_Now._" It tried to get out of Darryl and Dairine's grasps, but the two were frantic and didn't let it go.

"We can't give you back until we understand why you came!" Dairine explained, and the Strider stopped struggling. (A/N: Strider stopped struggling. Say that 5 times fast!) "Now, first question, who are you?"

"Kizaeith."

Dairine glanced at Darryl, who was looking around the bathroom curiously, there were three stalls, and a fourth for handicapped people. The bathrooms, on the inside, seemed almost larger than the deli itself.

"Well, Kizaeith, it seems you have been sent to us for some reason..." Dairine was laying it out quickly, and Darryl sent her a rather dull look, which matched the one on Kizaeith's face. "You must know something about what we're trying to find out." _The Powers don't do things for no reason, Darryl._ Dairine commented dryly in his mind.

"Depends, what are you trying to find out?" Kizaeith was now looking around the bathroom. "And you are correct, the Powers don't do something for no reason." Dairine stared at the creature along with Darryl, who had received the thought perfectly. "Striders are telepathically inclined beings, you two, obviously wizards, should know that."

Apparently, the partners didn't. "We wanted to figure out why the Lone One could... Consume people in darkness, as it appears." Dairine explained before Darryl could open his mouth to try and do so himself. The Strider tapped his paw against his chin, then looked at Dairine with contempt.

"Consume? No. Cover? Yes. No one can be consumed by darkness. Where Striders are from, the whole world is... As you called it, dark. Maybe the Lone One figured out how our planet gets covered."

Following Kizaeith's every word, Spot had been taking detailed notes. However, by the end of its speech, Spot's screen had turned blue. "Error!" It spouted cheerfully.

~!~!~!~!~

The problem with dealing with something you don't understand is finding out why you don't understand it in the first place. For Kit, it was trying to find out why he was back where he started.

Darkness befell every part of this cursed world. The tree that was struck by lightning was unfortunately still standing, no matter how far he walked it kept appearing. The grass was damp and dewy, as always, and he rarely sat down. The minute he was banished here the thick black smoke-like demon crept along the ground and up the tree and into the sky, of which for mere seconds had been a lighter gray.

"Deja vu." Kit mumbled to himself, wringing his hands with discomfort. He couldn't sit, he couldn't stand, and he couldn't walk, without feeling a ceaseless discomfort. Being normal, being light, for no matter how long, was only a temporary medicine if he was just going to be thrown back here.

"All over again." Was the reply, and Kit pushed off of the tree he was leaning on and looked around frantically. No body connected with the voice. "Good things always have to end. Your friends aren't doing much to help you, and the ones who were already in action are now stuck with more questions." The male wizard snarled, a snarl that could never belong to him.

"Temper, temper. I thought I gave you enough advice when you were with your dog." Out of nowhere stepped a man in a clean-cut, three-piece business suit. He took off his bowler hat to reveal red-gold hair. "I'd hoped you'd be glad to see someone you knew."

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: HA! The chapter's over. And for those of you who don't know who that person mentioned is, read So You Want to Be a Wizard over. It took me a while before I could find the description I was looking for.

So, REVIEW!


	12. When You Lose the Strength to Stand

Free Change Fault

A/N: Whee! I'm back with another chapter! I know I update kind of slowly, and the don't go over my chapter before posting it, but I can get really lazy sometimes.

Nomake Wan: _Sometimes_?

SAT: Okay, all the time.

Review Replies:

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DSRockStar: Funny thing is, I don't like cliffys either! So why the heck am I writing them...? *ponders*

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katie janeway: Aren't I bad? I almost started all over again! Ha!

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little lisa: WHOA! HOLD ON! *goes to check subject and faints* I did say that, didn't I? How could I forget there was suppose to be romance? I really forgot. I can't believe I did, but I got so into making everything worse and all... Yeesh. Thank you for the info, maybe I'll add a little. *shrugs* Thanks for your review!

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SVZ: Robbed? O_O Poor SVZ... Well, I see ya at the mall on Saturday then.

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DTN: I'M ALIVE!!!!!

Disclaimer: .....Fine, I don't own YW. Happy? Are ya?

This chapter is dedicated to my Trunks Plushies, who are currently glaring at me an my magic 8 ball.

Chapter 12: Remember Me when you lose the Strength to Stand

(A/N: Long title.)

"Error?" Dairine looked down at the little computer, which continued to spout the same word in a cheerful manner before Dairine finally talked to it. "What do you mean, Error?"

If Spot had had eyes, they'd probably still look happy. "Input does not comply."

Darryl looked at the Strider curiously, who was looking down at Spot in amusement. "What is the little thing you have there?" Kizaeith asked.

"Spot, recheck what Kizaeith said." It was Darryl's command, not Dairine's. Yet Spot did so, as cheerfully as possible.

"Error!"

Dairine rolled her eyes and put her hand on her forehead, before picking up Spot. "Where is the error?" Loading sounds were heard.

Spot repeated what Kizaeith had said in the exact same voice, though with a slight technological feel to it. "Where Striders are from, the whole world is... As you called it, dark." Spot's voice returned to normal. "Error!"

~!~!~!~!~

"Get out of here, now." Kit growled, fists clenched.

The Lone One smiled graciously and seemed to sit down on thin air. "Come now, Kit, are you angry that you're back here?" It didn't wait for an answer. "It's where you belong, if you must know. You were getting too... _attached_, to Miss Callahan, as it were." It folded Its hands in Its lap.

Kit snorted, his arms across his chest. "Attached? Where do you get that we were too _attached_?" The cloak around Kit swirled with his movements.

"I didn't say Nita was getting too attached to you Kit. But good job figuring that out on your own." Its voice was sarcastic and sadistic, it made Kit shudder. "Now, seeing as I have you right where I want you, how can a taunt Nita with it..."

Kit's eyes burst with anger, and ran at the man, who merely stepped to the side and tripped him, Kit's knees burying themselves deep into moist dirt that somehow was not yet mud. The Lone One's deep laughter made Kit furious, his fists slamming into the ground over and over, pretending he was punching the Lone One, the one he couldn't beat.

"Christopher, Christopher. Tsk. You really shouldn't do that. Yes, you're Peach friend let you become human again, but that was easily dispersed."

Kit had to think of something, but pictures weren't coming to his head clearly. "How?"

"How? _How_? I have supporters, though it may be hard to believe. One such I'm sure is talking to Nita's sister and that _annoying_ abdal. They will be falling for it already, I suppose." Kit ran at It again, and missed again.

"ARGH!"

~!~!~!~!~

Nita felt the slam in her chest from Kit's outburst, though she didn't know it was Kit. Her hand groped for her heart, and Tom stared at her quizzically, to which she merely waved her hand that she was alright. _No. No, I won't let this happen._ Nita's thoughts were quick in deciding, and without a second thought or an opinion from Tom, Nita grabbed her manual and rushed out of the kitchen, along the way grabbing her jacket and slamming open the door, forgetting to close it behind her as she ran down the sidewalk.

Her destination wasn't unknown to Tom, who stepped into the doorway and watched her run, until she was not even a speck and then he stepped out of the house, closing the door behind him and doing a transit to his own home, where he knew Carl would be waiting.

~!~!~!~!~

Nita wasn't sure where her feet were taking her, but she trusted her instincts and let them lead her wherever they needed to go. She was beat when they did finally choose to stop, in the well known place where she first met Kit, ignoring the protests of the trees as she ran across their works of art, ignoring the calls she heard from birds flying overhead. She was on top of a large rock in no time, screaming at the top of her lungs.

She couldn't take it anymore.

And it took all of five seconds for the following things to happen:

Her scream was caught in her throat and turned to a low gargling sound.

Nita noticed she was no longer standing on a rock.

And she was now standing in front of Kit and the Lone One.

~!~!~!~!~

Kizaeith immediately grimaced, his clawed paw-like hands clapping together once, then twice. "It seems your odd little follower has figured me out before you did. Striders can create darkness. They're land isn't dark at all, in fact, it's very bright. At least last time I was there." He laughed. "For your information, I was sent here, you didn't call me. The Lone One is much to busy with other matters. Now, to continue, certain Striders have supported the Lone One and were banished, and since I told you all you need to know, I can leave now." Dairine and Darryl didn't stop him when he left the bathroom, nor when he left through the worldgate. Why he didn't attack was beyond them, but they were then running in an instant out of the deli, letting the odd looks bounce off of them.

"How are we suppose to get home in time?" Dairine frantically asked aloud, as they stopped in front of the ticket counter. Darryl was panting with his hands on his knees, looking up at Dairine. "Oh, we could transit, that's true." Spot clambered up next to Dairine.

"Nita is no longer at home!" Dairine was starting to get annoyed at the cheerful bark of her manual.

Darryl rolled his eyes. "If she isn't home, then how're we suppose to tell her that the reason Kit was contained was because of Striders? How is that suppose to help us at all?"

"Apparently the Council that contained Kit can't override their Powers, or else they'd be able to help Kit. Is that because only the banished ones can create darkness?" Darryl shrugged at Dairine's question, and they leaned against the wall, Spot would've been looking up at them both if he had eyes.

~!~!~!~!~

"Good of you to join us, Nita." The Lone One said suavely in greeting, and Kit immediately moved away from them both. "Now, both of you are right here where you cannot do anything except rot in this place."

Mimicking Kit without knowing it, Nita rushed at the Lone One, which for once startled the form of It, and he was hit lightly by her. He moved to the side nonetheless and Nita fell to the ground as well.

"Now, be good little wizards and stay put, for not everything revolves around you today." It grinned, but the grin turned into a frown as an alien voice spoke.

"Actually, it seems everything is revolving around you lately."

~!~!~!~!~

"What are _you_ two doing here? How did you get in?" The Lone One stared at the two figures standing before It, both standing tall and not moving a muscle.

"_Three_, actually. The third gave us an invitation." One figure, female, stood with her hands on her hips, her Irish accent loud and clear.

"And I don't think it's nice for you to ignore him." The second figure, male, had his arms crossed coolly over his chest.

"Ronan! Annie!" Nita scrambled over to them, Annie catching Nita before she fell again. Aggravated, the Lone One rubbed Its forehead. Kit looked at the odd grouping, stalking confidently over to the three wizards, who-though they didn't touch him-welcomed him just as confidently.

"Yes yes, now all of your friends are here to try and defeat me in battle once _again_. Tiring, isn't it?" It interrupted their little reunion, replacing the bowler hat on Its head.

"Please, think before you speak!" A voice came out of Ronan, that didn't seem to belong to his own. Peach.

"We'll battle you here and _now_." Kit seethed, and Nita stepped up to her best friend, so they were standing side by side and nodded.

"Oh, this is what I was telling you about, Christopher. The closeness of you two is getting so old, so fast." It issued a slapping motion with Its hand, sending out what looked like a bolt of orange lightning, toward the pair. "And so the battle commences."

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Short chapter, I know. But now is the whole battle-thing. And, I hope, a little romance. I can't believe I FORGOT that! Baka Shima-san!

Review, and no flames, please.

-SAT


	13. Fill and Empty, Lose and Win

Free Change Fault

A/N: Aww... Thank you for all the reviews! I'm so proud of you guys; you got me over one hundred! (Did you know that was my original goal for this fic, to get at least one hundred when it was over? And I reached it before that!) Also, if you notice the rating has been changed back to PG-13, mainly because of this chapter and all the violence.

Review Replies:

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little lisa: Yes, I'm trying!!! I feel so stupid about the romance part, you don't know how much. I have no idea why people would flame this... I mean, there's no really upsetting coupling or stuff like that... It's a habit to say, I guess! Thanks!

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SVZ: School is going to start. It does it every year. THIS SUCKS! *KICK*

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DTN: Now that I've started writing the chapter, I think I can be almost done by the end of Summer Vacation. Mainly today.

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Mage Gurl 05: I'm hurrying. But I'm also lazy. Baaaad mix.

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DSRockStar: ...Why do I keep doing Cliffys? Everyone keeps complaining and yet I still do them... Well, lemme see what I do for this chapter...

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brennanvanilla: Thank you! Merci! Gracias! Arigato! Etc...

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rider of unicorns: Torture? No, this is torture *pokes repeatedly with pitchfork and then puts it away*. It was one of the quickest chapters, and yet it was the best. What is with my mind? That's actually happened before. Also, I've been counting down the months since I dunno, January for the seventh. I DON'T WANT TO WAIT A MONTH!! WAAH!

Chapter 11 Other Reviews:

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Silverwitch2: Alright! You reviewers are so demanding... *laughs* Here's the chapter that has been well awaited for.

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own a thing. Promise.

Chapter Thirteen: Fill Me When You're Empty, Lose Me When You Win

(A/N: Another long title. Short title is: Fill and Empty, Lose and Win)

Nita rushed out of the way of the Lone One's blast, scared out of her wits. Kit fell to the other side, landing on his front. Annie and Ronan were maybe three inches from getting hit, but managed to move out of harm's way in time.

It laughed. "That was merely warm-up."

Nita was on her knees, then her feet in seconds, unzipping her pocket and taking out her new Rowan Wand. "Prepped and ready to go, as always." Kit got up himself, with no weapons to fight with and yet still looking determined. Annie stepped up with Nita, taking out a temporary rowan wand of her own that was merely a day before. Ronan as well was unarmed, but Peach seemed to be in control now and made him step forward with the rest of them.

"How touching. Two unarmed and two armed with pieces of wood. How threatening." With one strong and smooth wave of Its arm, another bolt of orange was sent toward their lines. Just before jumping away Nita shot her own light towards It, surprising It profusely as it stung into Its supposed leg. Ronan had pushed Kit aside.

Ronan had touched Kit.

It laughed even deeper. "Now they're really unarmed. I'm sorry, dear Peachy, but your host is now unable to perform his duties." Ronan looked puzzled for a minute, and then looked down at his hands. They matched the rest of Kit's body, impenetrable and absorbent darkness. His head snapped up and suddenly a beam of light short out of his eyes, and Ronan fell limp to the ground. Nita ran to him along with Kit, but only Kit touched the growing darker form of the Irish boy. It was lifeless, as if its soul had been left.

Unaware of the sight beside her, Annie's eyes were drawn to the beaming light, taking no shape that was recognizable on earth, and too glowing to look at directly, but okay in the corner of her eye. It flew-no, floated-no, it blasted straight into the Lone One with a gigantic amount of force, sending It flying into the ground along with the startling new being.

"It-It's Peach." Kit breathed, looking at the flashes of red in the light. "Protecting us." Kit looked down at himself once more, the darkness that had taken refuge over his body, and snarled, getting up. Nita watched him, looking up at him and glancing down at the lifeless Ronan.

Annie backed off as she watched Kit stalk toward the limp Lone One, who was still being fastened into the ground by Peach. Screams turned to groans as the Lone One forced Itself up, getting pushed back inch by inch while standing. "What do you plan to do, little boy?"

__

Little boy. Kit's snarl was louder this time, and he ran at It, furiously, hitting It head on and landing on the ground with the light between them. The light was taking a more familiar form-to Kit that is, a Sprite, it's legs speedily digging into Its temporary skin.

Nita ran, leaving Ronan with Annie, but did not run all the way to the power sandwich. "Kit! Get off It! Let me get a better aim!" Kit shook his head, knowing that Nita could tell his answer was no, and he pressed down harder. He could hear the protests of both Powers, but he wasn't about to get up.

"Just shoot, Neets!"

"Stop being so heroic, El Niño, we only need one person holding It down!" Nita was urging, pleading now. Kit's answer was no once more, as the Lone Power was pressed deeply into the moist dirt. "Kit!" _Shoot! Damn it, Nita, just shoot!_ The female wizard cringed, the dark thought had entered her head by force. She raised the Rowan Wand slowly, hoping Kit could hold them down, and yet hoping he was thrown off all the same.

Twisting beams of blue and green flamed on her wand, and were sent out as streaks of skinny lightning, one after another.

~!~!~!~!~

Dairine and Darryl were still running when Tom opened the door for them expectantly. They zipped into the leaving room and slipped over the carpet, falling in front of the easy chair that Carl was sitting on with a cup of tea in his hand. They stared up at him, both lying on their stomachs meshed onto the floor.

"Aren't you going to do something?! Where are they?!" The questions, all similar, poured out their mouths like waterfalls. They continued to ask without answers as they got up from the floor and sat down on the couch. "Will they be alright? Why isn't Nita at home? Did you know about the banished Strider?"

Carl raised his hand to cease their questioning when they were finally seated, and Tom sat down in the other easy chair with his fingers laced together and raised about a foot over his lap, his elbows on the arms over the chair. "No; we aren't sure; yes they'll be fine; Nita's with them; yes." Carl's voice was brisk and business-like, too serious for the Senior Wizards it seemed. Dairine looked at them with rounded eyes, glassy and ready to spread to tears. And not only because everyone one else was in danger; but because she wasn't there with them.

"I'm sorry if this isn't what you want to here, but somehow Nita, Ronan and Annie were thrown into the containing facility that Kit had been re-stationed to. We're pretty sure Ronan and Annie somehow got in by permission or something, but Nita, well, we are just as baffled as you are." Tom spoke just a little more casual, and it was almost as if the pair had switched roles.

Dairine wasn't satisfied. "What if they are killed?!"

Carl shut his eyes when he answered. "I know this isn't the answer you want, but when you recite the Oath, you except the costs, the advantages _as well_ _as_ the dangers."

~!~!~!~!~

Suddenly things were in slow motion. Nita restrained herself from shutting her eyes tightly as she watched the beams zip toward Kit, Peach and the Lone Power. No, she hadn't missed, that she was sure of, and the beams hit their mark, going straight through Kit and Peach toward the Lone Power Himself, hitting all three with the same amount of strength. Repeatedly they hit, but all in slow motion, and Nita half expected them to fall out of the air and land with a _plunk!_ on the ground like cardboard.

Kit let out a scream of pain and fell off the pile first, as another wave of treacherous bolts soiled the remaining two beings. Peach's scream was high-pitched and more living than even Kit's own, as the lightning penetrated Its glowing-no, glowing didn't do the scene justice-skin. It was then sent down into the Lone Power, who tried not the scream, tried to keep the agony out of Its face and grin, but the gurgle of pain sputtered up Its throat and was sent out in groans and hoarse cursing.

When finally Nita's barrage of light died into merely faint sparks and then faded away, the scene was more like a battlefield then war itself.

Annie was down on her knees, resting Ronan's limp but living head on her lap, talking to the body as if her Speeches would revive him. The spread of darkness had stopped halfway into his chest on both sides, coming up his arms.

Kit's many wounds from Nita's barrage were dripping blood and the cloak that covered him was tattered and ragged. His eyes were closed, and his breathing came in patterned chokes and gasps.

Peach had been flung off the Lone Power after taking all It could of lightning, and the small speedy body looked like a snail in speed now. It wasn't bleeding, and yet it seemed as if it's light was dripping out, though there was no dripping to be seen. Its feet, normally speedy and ever moving, were crossed over one another in an abnormal position.

The Lone One was the worst off of them all, and he had been on the bottom. Burn marks tattered the somewhat-human chest that had been exposed by the flames; that had ignited when the beams penetrated through. Though there was also no blood, Its mouth was open and Nita could imagine the small trickle that would've been coming out of the corner, and the darkness that was being absorbed in itself in the darkening world.

Nita herself was the second least wounded, with a few deep cuts from falling away and bruises from landing. Annie's only wound (besides her ego) was the sharp cut across her cheek from dodging the first lightning bolt, which was pouring red raindrops down onto the ground.

It was a war zone, and suddenly Nita felt like she shouldn't be standing. No one else was, it felt ridiculous that she was fine.

And then it clicked in her head what was going on in the sight around her. _Kit!_ She ran to her limp partner, then slumped to the ground like everyone else. She thought healing immediately and felt for her "pocket", her manual for once falling out itself and landing onto the grass. She opened it so it was in about the middle and for once the spell was right where she wanted it to be. She ran her hands over the wounds she had inflicted on Kit's chest, for his back was away from her, and wished silently for this to work. She leaned over him, pressing her hands onto his chest and laying her head between them, letting her hear his heartbeat and close her eyes. She whispered the words in the Speech and let her feel the pain of Kit's wounds, let her feel the tear of it, and then her desperate need to heal them resurfaced.

Kit's eyes opened slowly, while Nita was still laying on him and trying to concentrate, he eyed her almost suspiciously before hearing the whispered words. He looked around this cursed world, at the tree that was leaning in even through the darkness to hear the wizardry, and every other tree that was there and off into oblivion. He listened as Nita's Speeched words turned into English ones, and he heard those just as clearly, and the tree-trees were still listening.

"I need to save him. Please, heal him, let me heal him. Let me save him. I need him. I love him." Her words came out in more a mumbling run-on sentence, pleading to some unknown Power that was most likely watching them now and listening to her call, deciding whether to answer the non-wizardry words.

Looking down at her tensioned face, Kit lifted his hand, feeling no pain, comforted by the sight of his best friend, and brushed some dark tresses out of her face. Her eyes opened and widened, and she stared into his own dark eyes--not impossibly dark though, not absorbent darkness with no light though. And she stared at his hands, the normal tanned skin was shining in the starlight of the world above them. She stared for a few more precious seconds, and then embraced him tightly, still on top of him with her arms around his neck.

Everything else seemed to fade away, though the Lone One and Peach were the firsts to go, and Nita felt it was on their on accord, for they weren't beaten. Then the world melted away, and the pair found themselves on Nita's lawn, with normal grass that had dried over the hours of the day under them. Kit was in his own normal clothes, a collared green shirt and jeans, no holes, no tatters. They sat up, though Nita didn't release her hold on him.

"Did you mean it?" Kit mumbled into her hair, his arms wrapped around her tightly as he heard the loud, pounding footsteps coming down the sidewalk. Five pairs of feet, one coming from the house.

Nita detached her head from his shoulder and looked up at him. "Did I mean what?"

"Did you mean what you said? That you needed me? That you--" He stopped, looking up into the concerned eyes of Tom, Carl, Dairine, Darryl, and Nita's own father. His parents and sister (maybe even sisters) would be coming soon enough, as Harry Callahan had his cell phone out.

"Of course I did, El Niño. And I do." She kissed his cheek lightly and then broke away from him, standing up shakily as if she didn't know how to use her legs, and pulled Kit up with her. Dairine trudged up to them quickly and through her arms around her sister, before looking behind them.

Annie and Ronan were there, Ronan waking up from what seemed like a nightmare, Annie with a scar across her face. Dairine let go of Nita and saluted happily to Kit before running over to the Irish pair and dropping down to hug Ronan. Mr. Callahan was up and hugging the two of them seconds later, and Nita hugged him back--so did Kit, though weakly.

Of course it wasn't over. The Lone One hadn't died and neither had Peach, and the fight against entropy still went on. But they were safe once again, and alive, and in love--or did was that not mentioned? Oh well, that's someone else's loss.

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: Whoops, I lied in the other chapter then! This is the second-to-last chapter, I didn't even realize it until I go to the end! So there's one more, besides this, coming up, so look out for it!

-SAT (Shima And Tempis)


	14. To Heart

Free Change Fault

A/N: *sobbing* All of my ficcys are ending so soon.... Funny thing is, they ended with almost the same amount of chapters. (One chapter of my CCS one is an author's note) I wish they weren't over.

For the last chapter, I'm sort of going by a couple of Diane's books, where there's a little Timeheart chapter... only like 2 have this though.

Review Replies:

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rider of unicorns: First, I want to say that I really like getting your reviews. Can you believe we have to wait a whole 'nother YEAR until the eighth, Wizards At War (Whee, youngwizards.net is so nice)? It sucks!!! I finish them fast enough... Next I want to say that I'm so grateful you got your friends into my fic, and that you review all the time as well. THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!

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katie janeway: Yes, and here's the last chapter. I know I know, I'm going to miss it too--just kidding, it can't be _that _good. Thanks for all the reviews! I'm so going to miss them. Also, awesome name (Nomake Wan thinks so too, he's such a trekkie)

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SVZ: Of course you're sounding like me! I'm rubbing off! Oh, that makes me feel so good.... Heh, thanks for all your reviews SVZ, they're awesome, as always. So thank you, thank you, _thank you_! I won't lie, promise. Oh, and the dare to be nice on the first day of school was lost by me. ^^;; I'm so bad.

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fallen angel: Just started school. I WANT MY SUMMER VACATION BACK!!! Thank you for your review, I appreciate them a lot and I always like to thank my reviewers. (If you couldn't tell yet.) Anyway, here's the next chapter and thank you SO MUCH for reading.

SYWTBAW: Chapter 9ish... sort of 8-_Timeheart_

DW: Chapter 13-_Heartsong_

Chapter Fourteen: To Heart

The TV was flashing random pictures all over the dark living room, from toothpaste commercials to swinging aliens selling dangerous egg-beaters (A/N: Diane Duane owns that!). Kit stood in the doorway to the Rodriguez living room, leaning against the side with his arms folded over his chest, looking altogether amused.

"'Mela, why don't you just settle on one channel?" Carmela looked up from her channel surfing, stopping the erratic pressing of the up and down buttons for a moment. Miraculously, the TV actually stopped on a human channel, a soap opera by the looks of it.

"What's the point of settling on one when we have so many to choose from? By the way, mommy said you should be sitting down with all the bruises and stuff you have." Kit's sister pointed out with a short glance his way, before continuing her search for the 'perfect channel.'

Kit sighed, looking rather lazily down at the bruise he could actually see, a dark purple one on his arm. "'Mela, I will be sitting down. Just not down on Earth. To the moon, Alice." He quoted in a fake old-movie style voice. "Besides, they're healing... sort of." He shrugged.

Carmela turned to him again, this time the channel landing on something that Kit was pretty sure was rated over NC-17 on another planet. "Mommy also says you should take a break from your magic-stuff. She says it's getting you hurt to often."

Kit gestured to the bruise on his arm. "This wasn't from wizardry. 'Mela."

Carmela cocked an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"It's from quite a few guys at school who finally noticed Nita was there." Kit let out a laugh and then opened the screen door outside, to where Ponch lay sleepily in the yard. One of the dog's ears popped up when he heard the door slam, and then he immediately jumped up to greet Kit.

__

Arewegoingarewegoingarewegoing?!

"Ponch, not with you today. I'm sorry. Just Nita and I."

__

B-but... Ponch had whimpering eyes and matched with a pathetic sound from his throat. _I always come..._

Kit smirked. "Not always, Ponch, and Nita and I want some time alone. I promise you'll go next time, and then maybe we can take Nita to chase some squirrels. How does that sound?"

__

Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!

Taking out the transit spell from he reinstated "pocket", he read the Speech quickly, inserting the memorized breathing air/living necessities part himself. Soon there was a _pop!_ of displaced air and Ponch was left scratching himself in the yard and then sitting down quietly.

~!~!~!~!~

Nita sat down slowly on the large moon rock, her hands behind her to keep her in a sitting position. She looked at the blue spherical gem known as the Earth with almost dreamy eyes. _We are a part of a team that protects that._

Yah, we are. The female wizard sat up straight at the intrusion of thoughts. From her dreamy state she hadn't heard the pop Kit had made when he reached the moon. He bounced a little for the fun of it before wandering over to Nita, doing the fake yawn with an arm to put around Nita's shoulders. It worked, because Nita moved a little closer to him on the rock and continued to stare down at the amazing sight before her.

"It's great, isn't it?" Kit breathed, smelling Nita's scent while studying her thoughtful expression.

"It's amazing." Nita's voice was just as airy, as her head lay down on Kit's shoulder. Three more pops and three more youthful wizards bounced over to them. Ronan stood on another rock as he stared down at the Earth, while Dairine and Darryl fought over the final space on the big rock. Dairine won, and Darryl skipped over to Ronan, careful not to lose his balance as he did so.

"This is amazing as well, isn't it?" Kit asked, using his free arm to encompass the sight of all of the wizards, turning around so he could gesture to Dairine as well. Nita nodded, lifting her head up and placing a short kiss on his cheek, which made him wince. He had another bruise there. Nita laughed a little before setting her fingers gently on the wound, preparing to heal it, but Kit shook his head.

"It makes me look studly." Nita laughed.

Dairine, who had stuck her tongue out at the quick kiss, wedged herself between the two so she could talk to both at once. "Someone once said that 'To love and be loved is to the feel the sun from both sides.'" Dairine looked down at the Earth. "Do you think this is what the person meant?"

Nita snorted a little. "If whoever said that was a wizard, wouldn't he rather mean Timeheart than the sight of the Earth and the sun and other planets from the moon?"

Things fell silent again for a moment, as Darryl and Ronan turned back to look at them. "I think what the person meant was merely comparing loving and being loved. As if there were two suns. In this case, a gigantic ball of gas and flame is a good thing." Kit's answer seemed to shake them all, and yet they all understood it perfectly.

It was Dairine's turn to snort. "I know a solar system with two suns. And it isn't the best place!" Nita rolled her eyes as Kit tried throwing a moon rock at her, which missed, of course. Ronan laughed and sat down on the moon dust--he was obviously unaware of the stains!--and Darryl merely mimicked the snort.

Nita stood up from the rock, making Kit whimper disappointedly for a second, before Nita pulled him up and kissed him--and not on the cheek.

Dairine, Darryl and Ronan all seemed to look disgusted. 

"Get a room!!"

~!~!~!~!~

Tom and Carl's living room looked and felt almost like a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) meeting. Only adults were there: Tom, Carl, Nita's Aunt, Nita's Dad, as well as Kit's Mom and Dad.

They talked of many different things, wizardry to kids to pets to groceries. Tom and Carl participated when they could--not in the kids' area, and only a little on groceries. Everyone had a cup of tea and was constantly laughing at the two dogs that lay in the middle of it all. When the talk got serious it only got to the point of commitments of wizards, from the consequences and dangers to the advantages and safety.

All of it was pretty serious, and when Nita and Dairine got home that evening-looking slightly disheveled (A/N: Not because of anything _bad_ you people!)-they told their father they had no time to talk when he began to retell what happened.

It was similar at Kit's house, only instead of no one listening Carmela was almost eagerly awaiting anything she could possible hang over her brother's head or use against him. Heck, even something he could get in trouble for was fine with her.

Such a nice sister, isn't she?

Ah well, just another day in the life of a wizard.

__

So you want to be a wizard, huh? Both Nita, Dairine and Kit had though before going to bed. _More like so you want to be a teenage super hero._

~!~!~!~!~

A/N: DONE! I know it was kind of short, but I just wanted to sum up some stuff pretty well. And I put a little Nita/Kit in there for you guys, too. I really like how this fic turned out, and I'm so glad I received so many reviews! I really appreciate them all and I hope to keep writing!

By the way, for those who were wondering.... I took Do You Remember When?, one of my other stories, off because I didn't feel like continuing it for now. Sorry for disappointed peeps, it's just how it goes!


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